Warrior Ethos: 2
by 1054SS325MP
Summary: The sequel to Warrior Ethos, this is a retelling of ME2. It has ManShep x Tali and FemShep x Garrus, and is designed to be very realistic, etc. A little bit AU. You don't need to read the first story, but it helps. It uses Calinstel's ideas on the quarian culture. Focuses more on the relationships and less on the missions. The information page is a separate story of mine.
1. The Humbling River

**Bioware owns the characters and everything else you can find in the Mass Effect Wiki. Calinstel owns 99.5% of the ideas behind the Quarians that I'm using. The rest is mine. **

Chapter 1: The Humbling River

It occurred to John that the floor looked nice today. Freshly polished deck plates managed to give off the faintest glimmer of a reflection even in the darkness of his cabin. He'd have to thank the maintenance crew for that one.

Not only that, but it _felt_ smooth against his lips. Not a trace of dirt or debris upset the kiss he shared with cold metal. Of course John would have to speak to the ship's design team about one issue that quickly became apparent. The floor really ought to have been constructed further from his face.

_WWWRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA -_

The siren tore through the stillness of the cabin. The painful noise assaulted John's ears from every angle.

Confusion abandoned the Spectre as he sprung from the floor, nearly falling over himself as tangled blankets broke free from his body. He groped in darkness for the light switch. Though he had good visual memory of its location from his bed, it mattered little when he had no idea where he was in the small room.

The search proved unnecessary only a second later. Pale red light began bathing his room, the rest of the ship no doubt likewise illuminated. The emergency lighting together with alert siren meant only one thing. John threw on his gear, stabbed at the door control, and stormed into the cargo deck. _Fuck, fuck, fuck. Drill. Training exercise. Something. Please God, anything but this._

As if in answer to his thoughts, Joker's voice blared across the deck just as John came within an arms reach of the elevator. "Flash! Flash! Flash! Incoming!"

Joker's voice sounded clear and professional. If John had to guess, he'd say that the man seemed far too distracted from dodging whatever projectiles or beams sped their way to worry about trivial things like actually getting hit.

The deck jumped up to meet John, the deafening roar of an explosion explaining why he found himself uncomfortably close to the deck for the second time in half a minute. When his helmet's audio filters felt it was safe to admit sounds again, the loud wail of decompression greeted him. Before long, silenced reigned when mass effect fields stilled the fleeing air.

Space training had served the marines well; most already had their boots magnetized in case of a hull breach. Others managed to activate them as soon as the explosion hit. Only a few could be seen floating peacefully away beyond the protective field.

Hardly a scream could be heard throughout the cargo bay These marines were too professional for that. The survivors simply continued to gear up and wait for their non-commissioned officers to direct them to where they could offer the most assistance.

...

Though he spoke little of it, dying on a ship was one of John's worst fears. In combat, that is _real_ combat, he had some say in how it ended. In ship-to-ship battles there was little that one person, let alone a marine, could do to effect the outcome. The thought of not having any level of control over his fate sent chills down John's spine and terrified him more than almost anything. Almost anything... _Tali!_

Bringing his hand in front of him as he ran, his omni-tool flared to life, a brilliant orange lantern in the dim red cacophony around him.

"John! Not a good time," Tali's voice had never made him so happy, "Where are you? Get to the pods!"

"I'm fine Tali. On my way there now," technically this wasn't a lie; he'd just make sure the rest of his ground team got to the pods first, "What about you?"

The engineer's fingers were a blur as they fluttered over her console, helped along by the lack of any wind resistance. "I'm getting there. The ship is lost. I need to shut down the drive reactor before we-"

"Just go!"

"No! Most of engineering is dead, it's just Adams and myself! We need to do this so it doesn't go critical and blast the pods to pieces."

John knew better than to distract and possibly delay her with a pointless argument. She would tend to the ship regardless of his feelings. With a deep mental sigh, he gave in. "Fine, when you're done, _get to an escape pod!_ That's an order!"

"Don't worry. See you in a few seconds," she hoped. With that, she closed the connection and began a final few adjustments.

With luck John would never know that all of engineering was a vacuum and she had been seconds away from getting blown through a bulkhead. When a space-suited Adams found her she had just managed to isolate her air supply, still fighting a nasty case of decompression sickness. Envirosuits and cybernetics had their uses, after all.

...

Jane demanded answers, and as soon as she made her way into the cockpit said as much. "Joker, what the hell is going on?"

"Dreadnaught engaging us, moving to intercept from aft, unknown class, time now, using some heavy-ass particle weapons. I think I can get us out of here."

"The fuck you can," Jane scoffed as she synced her omni-tool to the ship-wide comm system. The broadcast alert tone sounded on all decks, followed by the Spectre's calculated voice, "All hands, abandon ship. All hands, this is the captain. I say again. Abandon ship."

Jane deactivated the comm and rounded on the pilot, careful not to break his shoulder as she squeezed. The situation was too serious to upset her, but she tried to put some fire in her voice nonetheless.

"Joker you listen to me, damn it," she pointed to the doorway behind her and to the right, "you've got thirty seconds then get to that pod. That's an _order_. And launch the distress beacon."

"Already done ma'am!" he called over his shoulder as she stalked away.

She needed to supervise the evacuation, make sure that everyone still living got the hell off this ship. Jane pulled up hasty damage and casualty reports on her omni-tool as she headed out of the bridge.

_Pressley dead..._

Jane would say a silent prayer for the gruff but efficient man later.

_Twenty or so presumed dead in engineering..._

Jane hoped that Tali wasn't one of those whose time had come. John would never forgive her and she would never forgive herself. Their youngest engineer, hardly a woman, had so much ahead of her... a bright future and all the potential in the galaxy. Pangs of guilt hit her hard for ever deciding to let John bring the quarian aboard.

_Cargo bay briefly vented and no report from John or Gunny Williams..._

Endorphins flooded her veins as she read. It just wasn't possible. Not like this, and for damn sure not on her ship. Biotics flared about her as charged through the ship towards the cargo bay. If her baby brother was spaced, nothing in the universe could stop her from going after him. Mom would understand.

...

"Sis, just heard the call," John spoke into his omni-tool as he checked the elevator, "We've got three marines spaced, ID's to follow accountability. Sixteen marines, Gunny, Garrus, and Liara all made it up on the lift."

Jane waited patiently for her twin to finish before tearing into him, "What the fuck, Nee? Didn't have time to report with the rest of the ship? Get the fuck out of there before the fields give!"

"Moving, Sis," he cursed his luck as the controls he palmed turned from green to red, "Elevator's broke. Gonna try for the service shaft with the last of the marines. Meet you at the top."

"Fine, see you there," she gasped as she neared to shaft leading down to the bay.

During the exchange between the twins, the cargo bay had quickly cleared of marines as they made their orderly way to the shaft and up its ladder. The whole time they moved, John could hear the shouts from his sister at the exit far above. As each marine reached the top, she used her biotics to pull them up and out of the way, one by one, directing them to the nearest pod.

Finally, it was John's turn. He was the final one out, aided by the biotic field surrounding him. As soon as his last toe cleared the shaft, Jane hit the seal and dropped him to the deck.

"Ow," John rubbed his knee where he fell, "Coulda been a little nicer, Sis."

"And you could have let me know you weren't Alchera's newest satellite," she replied.

"We'll discuss this later," he accepted the hand she offered, "What's the status?"

She pulled him to his feet. "Joker is overdue, gonna go down with the ship if someone doesn't stop him. Got reports of crewmen 'presumed' dead," she carefully omitted their location, "I'm headed to check on them, make sure everyone gets off okay, get them to the evac shuttles if needed."

"Got it. I'll get Joker," he responded over his shoulder as he headed off to the helm, "Get off this ship when you're done."

"You too, Nee! Be safe! Grab him and go!" but John was already out of earshot, submerged in the clamor of the ship's siren.

...

On his way to the bridge, John passed by the rows of escape pods, doing a mental count of the personnel inside as he passed. He felt incredibly relieved to see so many had already launched. He would get a final count later, but the numbers were better than expected yet worse than hoped.

Passing the final one, he saw Chakwas, Jokinen, Adams, Garrus, Bhatnagar, and...

"Tali!"

"John!"

At that moment the Quarian couldn't express how grateful she was to see her human standing in the doorway of the escape pod. Taking his hands she quickly drew him into a powerful embrace.

It could have been a lot worse, she reflected. Against a ship like that, the _Normandy_ stood little chance of lasting more than a few seconds. Yet there had been enough time for the vast majority of the crew to escape. The Human Alliance would be along shortly to collect the pods, and if not, she could hope for no better death than drifting for all eternity with John Shepard.

Ready to get her _inszel_ inside and the pod door closed, she held him even tighter and stepped backwards, intent on taking him with her. Fear crept through her as she tried. The human held firm at the door frame. Having met with resistance, her eyes pierced his as they searched for answers. _Don't you fucking do this to me! Not now. This is a _fre'eg_ing ship, you can't play hero here! _

"What are you doing? Come on, we _have_ to get out of here!" She pulled a little harder and met with the same opposition.

"I'm taking the pod at the bridge," he said without looking at her.

"No! You're here now," Tali nodded just behind her, "You'll take this one." Things were getting serious now. John picked exactly the wrong time to turn stupid.

He gently caressed her mask, speaking softly, "Joker's still there. He doesn't want to leave. I have to-"

A three fingered hand shot out with surprising force, latching onto his upper arm. The fingers he held to her mask contorted into odd angles as she used her other hand to wrap them in a surprisingly strong grip.

"Fuck that John! Let him die! You've done enough," she begged, "Please, _just come with me!_" Desperation overwhelmed her as she rapidly tried to yank him into the pod again and again. She would feel less panicked had her mask been slowly filling with water.

"Ahh, Tali, that hurts! I'll be fine! There's an escape pod on the bridge. I'm just gonna-"

"Not good enough! Get in here, _**now!**_" She couldn't take any more. Her human was coming with her. She had never thought for a second she was capable of harming even a hair on this man's head but circumstances dictated events, not thoughts and wishes. This situation required drastic action.

From now until his dying day and beyond, she would love and faithfully serve this man. That gave her plenty of time to make it up to him. Even if he never forgave her for what she was about to do, he would at least live to hate her. That was good enough. Her animal instinct took over, that state of mind that told her to destroy whatever endangered her mate. Which in this case _was_ her mate. It was for his own good.

John fell forward into the pod as she suddenly and violently tugged him toward her, his armored fingers twisting ever more painfully at the joints from the pressure of her vise-like grip. She maneuvered his palm to face her, pressing his digits up and back with both her hands now. The simple technique forced John to choose between continuing his fall to his knees or never being able to hail a sky-cab again.

Feeling from John the slightest hesitation to comply, she summoned all her considerable leg strength into a crippling kick against the Spectre's side. A disturbing crunch rattled through the pod from where Tali's greave hammered the human. The force would be enough to send him reeling were Tali still not holding his hand. He rebounded like a tethered soccer-ball to the sound of breaking fingers and landed at her feet, his head falling forward. Tali stopped then reversed its movement with a swift knee to his faceplate.

Doctor Chakwas and Garrus could only stare at the display. Adams thought about joining in, helping the girl drag in her boyfriend, but thought better of it. The others were already strapped in and couldn't help if they wanted to. Either way, John needed to get in this pod. Tali could have handled it better, but this might be the only way to accomplish anything. Garrus reflected that he would have done the same thing were it Jane pulling these stupid heroics and not her brother. It was a good thing his girl wasn't into that.

All resistance in the human vanished after the well-placed knee. He crumpled to the deck, and sensing that the threat to her mate was at least temporary gone, Tali took a flying leap at the pod-door controls. The ground met the girl much sooner than she hoped.

John had caught her by the waist, plucking her mid-flight from the air with his good hand. In a flash he scrambled on top of her and she found a very heavy black boot pressing against her neck. Though he was careful not to press too hard, embers of Tali's killer instinct ignited once again, burning hotter than ever before. This beast standing over her was going to kill her human. It had to die.

Years of dance training and competition made the next maneuver quite easy for the girl. Twisting to her right side, she kicked her left leg up as high as it could go, her knee grazing her chin. She sent a hand to catch her ankle.

The display reminded John of just how exotic she really was. Tali had, quicker than he could process, looped her body to surround his right leg. No human, gymnast or not, could pull of the feat. Almost too late to do anything about it, John saw exactly what she had in mind. Tali was never unarmed.

The quarian's fingers lightly brushed her ankle and slid along the holstered shaft of her ceremonial blade, stopping when they reached the haft. Withdrawing the weapon, she looked to the beast that threatened her _saera_, wanting to see its face as she ended it. Plunging it towards its meaty torso, satisfaction filled her in anticipation of the kill.

John barely had time to catch the blade with an armored gauntlet. At the sight of her towering target, reality forced itself upon her like a rogue asteroid. Still staring at him, Tali's hands stopped working and the dagger fell to the deck. The beast was gone. Inches from where the tip of her blade had been stood her _inszel_. His eyes held sadness, remorse, and... understanding.

John took a step back and off her, reaching down to help her up as he did. Standing before him, she slowly extended an arm then gently clasped his broken hand. He took it with as much vigor as the pain would allow.

"Please, John...," a sobbing cry then, "Please..." It came soft and defeated, as if a final plea from young mother begging for the life of her dying child. She forced herself to continue, "_Don't..._"

Though hardly capable of speaking through frantic tears and grief, John knew what she was trying to say. Faceplates tapped each other softly as he leaned in close, stalling her mid-sentence.

"I'm sorry Tali. Know that I love you." With that he withdrew his hand and stepped back, but not before one final grasp from his quarian, unwilling as she was to give up even at the eleventh hour. Seeing him wince at her grip, she let go out of impulse alone.

John quickly exited the pod and slapped its exterior haptic interface, closing the door and sending it on its way.

"I'll be back for you. Don't doubt me," John muttered to the place where the Quarian once stood.

Inside the pod, Tali curled up in the corner and waited for the inevitable.

...

The transition from ear-splitting inferno to the tranquility of space jarred the Spectre. Alchera loomed above, big, red, and beautiful, its sun just cresting into view. John shoved a floating chair aside as made his way to the cockpit.

The faint hiss in his ears brought his mind back to the confrontation with Tali. He had suspected some suit damage, and this confirmed it. It didn't seem to be that bad at the moment. For a little while at least, his suit would do an adequate job of maintaining pressure. Fortunately, he didn't plan on being here that long.

At first glance, it looked like Joker was dead. The only thing between John and empty space was the centimeter of suit material and his armor plates. Nothing could have survived in the gutted fuselage, but if Jane was to be believed there was still one person left only a few meters ahead.

The VI was long gone, so someone had to be flying the ship. The sight of the tell-tale blue glow of a mass effect field confirmed his suspicions. A moment later he caught the rapid movement of arms flailing across orange flight controls.

Crossing into the restrained atmosphere of the small compartment, he allowed himself a small sigh. This ordeal was almost over.

Drawing himself up to deal with the brazen pilot, he said plainly, "Come on Joker we have to get out of here."

The pilot, unwilling to stop working or spare a glance from his controls, replied, "No, I won't abandon the _Normandy_. I can still save her."

John shook his head as he spoke, louder this time, "The _Normandy_'s lost. Going down with the ship won't change that." He put a hand under Joker's armpit in preparation for a lift.

Reason finally won out over frustration. Defeat crept into the pilot's voice. "Yeah ok, help me up."

The Spectre started to pull Joker up and out of the chair, gently at first in deference to his medical condition. White light flooded the helm.

Quite unnecessarily, Joker added, "They're coming around for another attack!"

At this, John abandoned all care as he jerked the pilot up and out of his chair in one swift motion, hauling him in the direction of the escape pod. It was well past time to put this ship behind them.

"Ahh, watch the arm!" complained Joker.

John could care less if he broke every bone in Joker's body at this point, as long as that damn pilot lived to see another day. The Spectre steadied himself with one hand on the pod's door frame, using his other to hurl Joker inside, the task made easier without artificial gravity.

The white light made its way onto the flight deck. It sent John reeling, his grip giving way under the onslaught of flying debris.

"Commander! _Shepard!_"

Joker wouldn't launch the pod from inside as long as John was outside. Unfortunately, John just wasn't going to make it in time. That was not okay with the Spectre, but it had to be done. Palming the launch controls from where he impacted halfway across the ruins of the deck, he watched as the pod shot off to safety, the ship disintegrated around him.

Another explosion buffeted him, bringing him ever closer to the void. Gradually, momentum edged him further and further out into the great beyond. What little hope he still held onto rapidly vanished to the sound of the small air leak growing into a rather large one. Frantically he attempted to close the gaps in his suit, twisting and contorting his body as he tried. He had to make the hissing stop, louder and louder now, knowing the whole time that there was precious little he could do.

Alchera loomed large beneath him. Finally the hissing stopped altogether.

_Mom..._

_Jane... _

_Tali... _

_Dad... I'm coming home..._

...

With all the last of the survivors safely off the ship, Jane made her way to one of the few remaining escape pods. She had just climbed in when it, and the ship, lurched beneath her. With only seconds to spare, she hit the launch controls, bracing herself for the acceleration.

Rocketing to the preset rally point, she could only pray that John and Joker had made it out alive. Looking through the small view-port, She thought she caught sight of a small thruster flare just as the _Normandy_ entered her death throes, but she couldn't be sure. The ship fell to pieces as she watched Her first command and so many of those who trusted her with their life, sundered to ash as she stared helplessly. Now was not the time for tearful remorse, that would come later. She still had a job to do.

Orange light filled the hushed dark pod, her omni-tool keyed to the emergency frequency. She spoke softly, keeping her voice level, "Section heads, this is the Captain. I need accountability now."

One by one, they called in. Operations was good, supply was good, engineering took the largest hit... on and one they reported. Then silence. Jane realized that no one from the marine detachment had reported in. A chill crept up her spine.

"Commander Shepard, report detachment status."

More silence. It became hard to breath. "Commander Shepard, report now."

Again, no one spoke. Her eyes began to water, throat tightening. Jane's voice cracked, "John, please report..."

Seconds ticked by. She had to sit down and couldn't repress her sobs any longer. She screamed, "Nee! Report now God damn it!"

Finally she heard her answer, "This Gunny Williams, reporting for marine detachment. Twenty four present, three KIA, one MIA. I'm sorry Ma'am."

"_No!_ Fuck it all! No! Joker, _where is he?!_"

"Ma'am... The commander, he... got spaced," came the somber reply.

Jane didn't want to hear any more and turned off the volume on her omni-tool. A calm came over the women, followed by determination. John wasn't dead. Not by a long shot. He was out there waiting for rescue, waiting for her. If she was the only one with the knackers to go after her brother, then so be it.

Jane brought her omni-tool to the pod's control system access panel. With a few simple key strokes, she sent a command-authority override into the pod's navigational computer. She opened another bright orange window and began scanning for John's emergency locator beacon, built into every marine and crewman's suit. She found her brother's almost immediately, along with three marines and one engineering serviceman who had apparently managed to get into a suit. The others indicated no life-signs, but John's... He had a rapid pulse, dropping blood oxygen levels, and decreased suit pressure.

He needed rescue immediately. Hers was the last pod released and therefore the closest. Altering its flight path from the rally point to John took only another few key stokes. She checked the shuttle location to be sure, but, just as she thought, there was no way for it to intercept in time. Fingers ran along suit-seals, granting her a brief reassurance.

"John's alive, but he won't be for long. I'm going for him," she reported over the comm. She could only guess at what the replies would have been.

In agonizingly slow motion, the pod made for its new destination. What felt like an eternity to Jane was only a dozen of so seconds. Finally a proximity warning sounded, letting the former captain know she was within twenty meters of her target. Pod thrusters weren't designed to be very precise, the best estimate having Jane pass her brother within eighteen meters to above-starboard. She would overshoot and have to fight momentum on her way back to him if she didn't do something soon. If she delayed, the pod would eventually re-orient and return to its nav-point, though by then it might be too late.

She was no adept, but she practiced constantly with her biotics, once or twice toying with them while doing space-walks. Hopefully it would be enough.

Jane grabbed the emergency EVA kit and took manual control of the pod, aligning its hatch with roughly where she thought her brother lay suspended and dying. She took an instant to mentally prepare herself before releasing the hatch. Air shot from the pod, and with it the Spectre inside.

Diving headlong into her brother, she realized she would miss him by less than half a meter. Putting everything she had into the most important biotic pull of her life, she closed the distance and locked both arms around the man's waist. Halting their movement with another pull, she could see the air leaking from his suit in small fountains of crystallizing water vapor. By now it was barely a trickle. John wouldn't last long if she couldn't stem the tide.

"I've made contact with him. He's losing air. Suit damage."

She maneuvered herself to straddle her brother, locking his torso securely between her thighs. Her hands now free to operate, she quickly sought out each hole and crack, applying patches from the kit she brought with her.

"Finished repairs."

If a planet-side boat started taking on water, the first step was to plug the leak. Now, she had to find a way to bail the water out. Or in this case, restore all his lost oxygen. His auxiliary tank depleted, even his suit's recyclers would be of no use.

"I'm going to link my suit with his."

She connected her suit's external air supply coupler to his. She felt a chilling rush of air over her skin as her suit pressurized his. Dizziness momentarily hit, but that meant nothing to her at all. If she had been told she'd lose both arms and legs it wouldn't have tarnished her mood in the slightest.

Though still unconscious, John's breathing had stabilized and his pulse strengthened. She may have lost her ship, and many of the crew with it, but she had just brought her only brother, her twin, the better part of herself, back from the dead. _Tell me I can't do the impossible! Fuck you, I'm Jane Shepard! I can do anything! Fuck you, universe!_

"It's done. He's going to make it. Moving back to the pod now," she said in a detached tone, as if she did this sort of thing all the time and it was really nothing to get worked up about.

The pod, as predicted, had come to rest roughly twenty meters from their current position, well within the range of a biotic pull. Or it would have been, were they not still inside and active debris field.

Escape pods jettisoned from their parent craft and traveled a set distance to a constantly updated rally point. That point was set far away from the mother craft for a very good reason. Any closer and the pod risked collision with the expanding remnants of the destroyed vessel. Which is exactly what happened to the pod that Jane had brought within tens of meters to the derelict _Normandy_.

A large section of the obliterated frigate's drive section slowly careened into the pod, damaging it beyond any hope of repair. Eezo and mass effect fields showered everything within a hundred meters in a glowing blue aura.

"No, no, no... We were... We were so _close!_," she screamed with rage as she held her brother even tighter, arms wrapping around as she faced him, cradling his limp head to her shoulder. His sturdy form gave her some comfort in the face of oblivion.

"I'm sorry Nee, I'm so sorry," she blinked moisture from her eyes, "Please believe me, I tried. God I tried."

Even crumpled from the impact, Jane might have made it to the pod, maybe stayed inside, using its beacon to help locate them when the Alliance showed up. Instead she found herself drifting helplessly in the eddies and currents of the expanding field, while the pod did the same in the opposite direction. Even if she over-clocked her biotic implants, she had no hope of correcting their momentum.

Soon the pod would plummet into Alchera's atmosphere, heading west, while she and John would enter to face the rising sun.

"Quite a view Nee... very beautiful," she reflected, sobbing now. "You can't see it, but I'll describe it to you on the other side."

Sound came back to her then, like driving an aircar with the windows down. Soft at first, getting louder by the second.

She turned her back to the planet, holding John above her relative to its surface. "It's better this way. You're lucky. You're not going to feel what comes next."

She felt the heat now, a bad sunburn after a long day of laying out at the beach. The beach... A faint smile crossed her lips at the pleasant image.

"Garrus, if you're listening, I love you babe."

Blisters formed and burst under her armor. She held her brother tighter still, pressing herself as hard as she could into him. It might hurt now, but it wouldn't last much longer.

"Johnny..." Her insides cooked, she needed to stay awake for just a second longer.

"Johnny," she croaked, taking her last breath, "I absolve you from your sins. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good."

...

"Ma'am... The commander, he... got spaced."

"_**No!**_"

Tali had heard the section heads calling in. She realized, probably before the captain had, that John had failed to report. She dimly listened as Jane first demanded, then screamed for her _inszel_ to respond. Still though it hadn't sunk in, as far gone as she already was.

Not until _Joker_ finally decided to chime in. Wrath overwhelmed her sensibilities in a heartbeat. Were he standing before her, she would have killed Joker far too hastily to enjoy it.

Before long though, reason pressed though the haze as it was wont to do in desperate times like these. She would end that sickness of a man later. For now she had to rescue her human.

Garrus was the first to notice what Tali was up to. She stood by the access panel to the pod's computer, omni-tool out and fingers dancing. "Um, Tali? You and I are the only ones with vacuum-safe suits..."

It was as if he had been talking to a wall. She continued type away.

Others took notice then.

"Garrus!" Doctor Chakwas practically screamed, hand waiving at the girl, "You need to do something! She'll kill us all if she goes after him!"

One on one, only he could stop her, Garrus knew. Even that was a fifty-fifty proposition, maybe less. She fought much better than him at short ranges, after all. Alternatively, everyone in the pod could jump her at once, but she was guaranteed to kill at least one of them.

Inside the pod, Garrus felt their momentum shift from their previous heading. Not much time left now.

Engineer Adams spoke up this time, "Please Garrus! You're the only one with armor..."

The turian approached the girl. The new course set, her back now faced the panel she had been attending to. She crossed her arms under her bust. Cold, dead, and glowing eyes regarded him. Still she said nothing.

Garrus knew better than to touch her. She never liked that. Instead he held his hands in a Turian gesture used for begging. "For the love of the Spirits, Tali. For the love of your ancestors. You're going to execute them all."

Her face remaining impassive, her body as motionless as a statue.

He continued, "It's not worth it, John's already-"

The kick came out of nowhere. Thinking her incapable of movement at this point, he barely had time to block the terrifying blow. "Don't you _dare_ say such a thing!" She pointed an accusing finger at him and continued, "He's still out-"

The comm interrupted, "John's alive, but he won't be for long. I'm going for him." At hearing Jane's voice, Garrus and Tali both rounded to face the small speaker in the pod's wall.

Both Turian and Quarian tried to hail the captain at the same time, but Garrus was quicker. "Jane! What the hell do you think you're do-"

The blow landed square on the unsuspecting Turian's helmet before he could finish the sentence. "Captain!" yelled the engineer into her omni-tool, "Please save him! You can do it!"

Just as Tali finished, she found herself face first on the deck with a hundred and forty kilos of Turian and armor atop her. It didn't matter, once Jane had made up her mind, there was nothing anyone could do. She would save her human and Tali could wake up from this awful nightmare. She would be proud to have the captain as a sister one day soon, she hoped.

Holding Tali to the ground was a bad idea. The girl could leg press the armored turian ten times over, at least. Garrus was off her almost as soon as they fell. He assumed a combat stance, expecting the worst. He was surprised to find the girl just sitting there. Silence filled the cabin.

"Tali," began the former C-Sec officer wearily, "I don't think she can hear us. She would have responded by now."

Jane's voice betrayed nothing, "I've made contact with him. He's losing air. Suit damage."

Tali perked up. Feeling returned to her glowing eyes, unseen features softened. Her captain would make this right again.

"Okay Tali," Garrus said calmly, resigned as he was that Jane had and continued to risk her life like this, "Jane's got him now. He's safe. Turn the pod around."

She kept sitting, but this time she turned to him with a tilted head as he spoke. Perhaps this was the best she could hope for. The captain was doing exactly what Tali would have done. But then again, she had for more experience with EVA work and the captain might still need her help.

"Finished repairs," this time Jane let a touch of relief slip through the calm demeanor.

"See Tali? Turn this pod around, please," Garrus said again.

"Yes, please dear. Jane has this well in hand," Doctor Chakwas added.

Tali turned to face the elder human, then back to Garrus. After a moment's consideration she spoke, "Alright, I'll... I'll get us back to the nav point."

"I'm going to link my suit with his," Jane said.

Untold relief flooded the Quarian when she heard this. It mixed with no small measure of strange-yet-understandable jealously. While she had never told John, to a Quarian that act held special meaning. Although family members did this routinely for a variety of reasons, and anyone would have linked suits under these circumstances, she had still hoped to be John's first. The action would save Johns life, so she wouldn't complain too much. Besides, there was plenty of time to link suits later.

Tali finished resetting the pod's flight path to the rally point just as she heard her captain's voice again.

"It's done. He's going to make it. Moving back to the pod now," Jane spoke again.

Finally, she allowed herself to collapse to the deck, all the worry draining from her like so much raw sewage. She was at peace and all was right with the universe.

Quicker than she would have noticed, had she even bothered to pay attention, Garrus was on top of her. Like the well trained C-Sec officer he was, he had her lying on her stomach, searched, and deprived her of firearms and blade before anyone else could make a move. Almost as an afterthought he produced a set of flexi-cuffs and secured her wrists.

Tali was more than happy to put up with her Turian friend's textbook arrest. She would have put the hand-cuffs on herself had he asked. John would live, and she would have something to live for.

Jane's voice interrupted Tali's reprieve, "No, no, no... We were... We were so _close!_"

"What?! No! Not now! No!" Tali flailed against her restraints. She tried to get up, but couldn't find the leverage on her stomach as she was, hands tied and Turian atop her again.

"Please Garrus! You and me! We can save them! You and me and Jane and _John!_ We can all live!" She was no closer to tiring than she had been when the _Normandy_ first came under fire.

This time Jane could barely be heard, "I'm sorry Nee, I'm so sorry,"

"Garrus! Now, you _det kazuat_, bastard, fucking, _fre'eg_, son of a whore! Let me go!"

"Tali," the Turian said as he used a talon to turn her head to his omni-tool, "We're too far out. They were blown towards the planet by something."

Before her, displays showing John and Jane's suit signatures had the pair already in a rapidly decaying orbit. Tali could never have noticed when Doctor Chakwas did the merciful thing and put her under with a well-placed tranquilizer.

**I owe you all a Tali/Shep love scene, maybe next chapter with... Freedom's Progress. **

**What did I do right? What did I do wrong? Please let me know with a review.**


	2. Stop Loss

**Bioware owns the characters and everything else you can find in the Mass Effect Wiki. Calinstel owns 99.5% of the ideas behind the Quarians that I'm using. The rest is mine.**

Chapter 2: Stop Loss

"One more time. What is the ROE..." Tali scanned her seated subordinates, looking for those whose minds appeared to be elsewhere, "Runi?"

The marine heard her name called on and perked up. It had been a long night, and she wasn't in the mood for this.

First, the platoon leader had them training for ten hours straight. Then Prazza had insisted that she and a couple of her friends accompany him to pre-mission party in a cargo bay that one of the sergeants had rented, complete with a case of smuggled liquor. Finally, their fearless leader, currently glaring down at her, had seen fit to wake them four hours before the start of day-cycle to do some very intense physical training.

Needless to say, she was barely able to stay awake, let alone answer inane questions. Quickly trying to recall the question her platoon leader had just posed, she glanced to the left and right looking for answers.

"_She wants to know what the rules of engagement are_," supplied Xana, a fellow marine, using a private communication channel.

Tali's gaze narrowed on Xana, then shifted between the two women.

"That's right, sergeant, I want to know what the ROE is, and your suit's comm systems need more security against hacking. Mistakes like that can get you killed," Tali shook a finger as she spoke, then marched over to Runi, "And you, corporal, not paying attention in an ROE briefing? Are you serious?!"

"Sorry, Ma'am! Won't happen again Ma'am!" Runi could only stutter. When the lieutenant got like this it was bad news for everyone. Just because she was some damn big war-hero, she thought she could strut around giving orders like a slave-driver. Things were so much better when it was just Prazza; he let the marines so whatever they wanted.

"_Keelah_, you're damn right it won't. Everybody but corporal Runi, on your feet," a chorus of moans sounded through the ship's small briefing room, "The corporal doesn't want to pay attention. That's fine, she can sit there and nap while everyone else stands. Thank her later, marines."

"Now," Tali continued, close enough to the young corporal to almost touch facemasks, "Do you really want to start a diplomatic incident with a race we've barely gotten to know? With the one council race that doesn't hate us? Tell me you remember the ROE."

"Yes, Ma'am," Runi swallowed hard, "We are not to engage Human forces unless directed to by yourself. If engaged by Humans, we are to suppress with non-lethal force, software attacks, and warning shots while we withdraw."

"Correct," Tali said as she backed off and resumed her pacing at the front of the room, "If there is trouble down there, and we play the _nis'telz_ right, we might actually play a large role in turning these Humans into allies. They are a very friendly people and could be useful to us."

"Of course, Ma'am," replied Runi. The platoon leader was no stranger to Humans, and very familiar with their _friendliness_ and _usefulness_, if rumors were to be believed. Xana had told her that the lieutenant still woke up screaming some nights, crying out the name of the dead Human who popped her suit seal. Runi wasn't salvaging it though. _Miss_ Tali was way too high strung to have ever gotten laid.

Prazza spoke this time, "Ma'am, it's lunch time. We can finish this later," turning to the rest of the marines without so much as waiting for her to respond, he continued, "Everybody out. Back here in one hour."

Once everyone but Tali and Prazza had left the room, the lieutenant rounded on the other Quarian, her body language leaving little interpretation as to her current state of mind.

"Just what _der'vak_ do you think you're doing," Tali hissed angrily, "undermining me like that in front of the troops? We're supposed to be a command team, Platoon Sergeant."

"Perhaps, but you're being too strict with them. Just let me handle things. Do the paperwork, get us the resources we need to do the job, and back the _fre'eg_ off like a good little officer," Prazza finished with a dismissive wave.

The male Quarian had no clue how close he was to getting his faceplate smashed in at that moment. Tali would relish the sight of its tempered glass, propelled at high velocity by her shotgun butt, breaking apart as the shards bored holes into his smug face. He was probably varren-ugly so it was bound to be an improvement. She would expect a thank-you card from his wife.

She tried reason instead. "I can count at least three articles of the Migrant Fleet code of conduct that you violated with that little stunt. But more importantly, I won't have time to finish this briefing with that hour long break. They could have eaten here."

"Just talk faster. Besides, the ROE isn't that important. If we kill all the humans that see us, they won't know who did it. No diplomatic incident," Prazza Joked. It was something any marine or Soldier might joke about, dealing with killing and death on a daily basis as they always did.

Tali didn't see it that way. Silently, she fumed. She knew it was intended as a joke, but one did not joke about killing innocent Humans around her. Turians, Asari, Salarians, definitely. Batarians and Krogans, sure. She could even chuckle at the idea of some hapless _tasi vas nedas_ Quarian getting sucked into an ion intake manifold. But not Humans.

Pushing her anger, and thoughts of dying Humans, to the back of her mind, she continued, "Prazza, one more comment like that and you're getting written up again," She began pacing with arms across her chest, "We are conducting an unannounced, fully armed military operation on a world claimed and _occupied_ by a powerful, individualistic, and unpredictable race."

She stopped pacing, walking to within a meter of her Platoon Sergeant, "Caution and diplomacy are the most important tools of our trade here. Don't forget it," she finished with a finger rapping on the man's faceplate.

"Of course, _ma'am_," he stressed the honorific, turning it into an insult, "I'm going to get a tube. See you in an hour." With that, he calmly walked out of the room.

The lieutenant may be sympathetic to a bunch of backwards alien colonists, but not Prazza. The Human government didn't want anything to do with the colonists, probably didn't even know they existed, and ancestors help them if they so much as looked like they were going to interfere with the mission. This was still _his_ platoon, rank be damned.

...

"Hey," Jane gave her brother a jab to the shoulder, "Hey, Nee, wake up."

"Uhhhggg... Dad... Ugh." John's head rolled from side to side while he mumbled. Eyes still closed to the world, he gave no sign that he understood his sister's prodding. Jane didn't want to do it, but she realized she might have to carry her dazed sibling if he didn't come around very shortly.

"Wake up!" Jane yelled, smacking him hard across the face. They didn't have time for this.

"What!" yelled a startled John, sitting bolt upright as he did so. Anger and annoyance flashed across his face for an instant as he was transported back to his childhood aboard ship. His pesky sister had once again woken him up early on a Saturday morning when he could be sleeping in, just so she would have someone to watch the cartoon vids with. "Just gimme an hour more..."

Slowly he opened his eyes and registered the fear and worry in his sister's face as he trailed off. The way she gripped his shoulders told him something wasn't right, as did the faintly glowing scars on her cheeks and just below her eyes. He brought his fingers to his own face and felt the same disfigurements, his questioning gaze searching her for answers. She nodded in confirmation. Something really bad had happened.

"So," he began slowly, adjusting to the new reality around him, "we got spaced and someone rescued us?"

"Yes, and now our doctor wants us to find a gun," Jane spoke with a hint of relief in her voice, as if this was all it took to bring her brother up to speed.

"Wha?" John had the look of a dog trying to understand calculus.

A feminine voice came over the intercom, "Please hurry you two, I'm sorry but we don't have time for this. There is a gun cabinet with pistols in it on the wall by the door. You'll find armor in wardrobe across from you."

"That's the doctor?"

"Yeah, I think I remember seeing her... operating on me," Jane shuttered as she tried to suppress the memory before changing topics, "There's some kind of firefight going on and we need to get the hell out of here."

"Wherever here is," John had already walked to the arms safe and, finding it locked, set about looking for an omni-tool to bypass the security mechanism.

Jane tossed him one of the pair she found by their beds.

"Huh. Never seen this model before," he tried it on and set about familiarizing himself with the operating system, "Looks like a Logic Arrest, but this is faster and has more features than even a Savant X. No omni-gel applications installed... What the hell is this, one of the HMOT-"

"Johnny, just hack the damn safe."

"On it, Sis," he said without turning from the glowing omni-tool.

Within a minute he had the wall safe open and weapons in hand. Passing one to Jane, he examined the pistol. It was rare that he found a gun he didn't recognize, particularly a new one. He read every extranet article he could find on military hardware, still, one or two of the more classified items were bound to slip his notice.

"New omni-tools, new weapons... Are we in some kind of R&D facility?" Speaking to his sister, John was answered by their Australian accented doctor.

"Yes, but that's not why all this equipment is new to you," the Aussie sighed deeply, "I'll explain later, but your lives are in extreme danger. Get your armor on and I will guide you to my assistant, operative Taylor."

"Yeah, that's enough thinking, Nee. Get you kit on and lets go." John turned to his sister as she spoke. Save for a black lace bra and the bottoms of her armor, Jane was completely was completely nude.

"C'mon, Sis, I don't want to see you like that. Couldn't you put that stuff on over your clothes?"

"Oh, for the love of... Just hurry the fuck up. You're lucky... if you'd turned around a second ago you'd seen my thong and I don't remember being quite so hairy down there." She started strapping on her chest piece while John pulled on his bottoms, "I thought I was doing you a favor. After Garrus and I started dating, I stopped wearing any knickers at all under my armor."

John grunted in reply as he tried to suppress the mental image brought on by this newest revelation. Jane had had her armor cleaned two times throughout the entire long, sweaty, Saren campaign. During both instances she had been too busy to do it herself. Instead she had passed that duty off to her brother when she happened to notice him sanitizing his own. John made a mental note for some playful revenge.

Once the twins had dressed, their doctor took the opportunity to speak again. Clearly she had some kind of visual feed from the room. "Alright. You'll need some thermal clips. They're small, cylindrical heat sinks for your weapons. Insert them in your weapons, discard them when done. Round hole, round peg. Too easy."

John started rummaging about the room, looking for something that might fit into his pistol.

Jane did the same, but not before mumbling to herself, "No wonder we've never seen these things before. Hundreds of years of guns, and we're back to magazines. Dead end tech."

Finding a pair of the small cylinders, the twins locked and loaded. Not knowing what to expect, John had no trouble giving his sister point as they opened the door and stormed out.

...

"Mechs. More damn mechs," Jane said as she collected a few thermal clips off the fallen machines and handed two to John.

"Yeah, looks like someone hacked them, or a virus. What moron decided to arm these things anyway? It's not as if there's a shortage of mercs in the galaxy..."

"You can say that again," replied Jane. "Come one, doc said this 'operative Taylor' should be just up here. High-low with me around this corner?"

"Sure, Sis," replied the male Shepard.

She crouched low beneath her brother as she sighted down her pistol, ready to fire on anything that moved. John pushed his fingers down the back of her armor, holding her back plate in a loose grip. Feeling only skin, he was reminded again of her choice of attire.

The pair exchanged a nod and rounded the corner. Flipping his weapon's safety off, John's blood ran cold at what he saw. Time slowed... and something else. Something he couldn't describe at the moment. The two opened fire on the over half-dozen mechs, Jane pumping round after round of cryo ammo into their targets while her brother hit them with disruptor ammo as fast as he could pull the trigger.

Jane took a dozen hits to her chest, helmet, and shoulders in rapid succession, pain causing her to go limp and almost knocking her to the ground. John felt the fall approaching as her armor slipped between his fingers. His grasp tightened without thinking and in an instant he had his sister behind the relative safety of the corner in one unnaturally strong pull.

"Gah! Damn but that hurts! It feels like I haven't been shot in ages. You think I'd get used to it by now," said Jane as she pulled some med-gel from a chest pouch.

"You're well enough to complain, you're well enough to shoot. Just two more, I think."

"Fuck shooting. It's time for some biotics. Speaking of which, you and I need to have a talk after this. Shoot the one on the right," she nodded to her left, his right, as she faced him.

John inclined his head in agreement. "Ready?" John asked.

Jane quickly nodded, "Go!"

Around the corner again, Jane hit the pair of machines with her biotics, knocking them towards the wall behind them. Before they could impact, John emptied his magazine into the one on the right, while Jane charged and connected with the one on the left, sending its head flying from its shoulders.

Surveying the damage, John walked over to his sister who began the her new ritual of gathering unused thermal magazines. Seeing his approach, she offered her opinion, "I'm sick of this already. If we do have to use these things in the future, I think I'm gonna buy a backpack."

Nodding a strong agreement, John brought up what his sister had mentioned earlier, "What did you want to tell me about biotics back there?" He motioned with a thumb to the corner they had been standing behind.

"Right. Well something is different about you," she avoided looking at him, instead searching the ground for clips that weren't there, "Probably me too."

John scratched the back of his head in thought, "Yeah, something was different. I felt it. I think I was stronger. I mean I pulled you back like it was nothing... Almost got you off your feet with one hand."

"Maybe," Jane added, exchanging an old clip for a new one, "But there's more to it. You've got biotics. I saw them flare."

"What? You're kidding." he asked anyway, but he could tell she wasn't in a joking mood.

"I'm serious. We always knew it was a possibility. I've got it, no reason you wouldn't. I guess the last horse finally crosses the line," Jane chuckled, giving her brother a pat on the back.

"Well here's a reason why not: Even exposed to eezo as we were, there was a ninety percent chance that neither of us would develop any abilities. The Alliance got really lucky with you, and I'm just happy I didn't wind up with a grapefruit sized tumor on my skull."

"Well, there's still time. I'll admit, I've never heard of anyone gaining abilities so late in life. Maybe it was the eezo in that blast that sent us crashing into that planet?"

"The _what_ that sent us crashing into _where_?" John expression was of total shock.

It occurred to Jane that her brother had been unconscious for that part. It was a good thing too, because she found the experience to be exactly as uncomfortable as it sounded.

She allowed herself a smirk. "Don't worry about it. Let's head up these stairs. I hear gunfire."

This time John couldn't tell whether she was joking or not. It didn't matter at the moment. If there was an active shooter that meant that he, she, or it was shooting at something. One of those involved might be on their side and it wouldn't do them any good to let a friend get shot.

'Friend' was perhaps the wrong term for what they saw. Without a doubt, he was in the process of destroying the mechs that had been attacking them. Just as undeniable was the Cerberus logo on his uniform.

Quickly dispatching the remaining assailants, the twins confronted the man they both suspected was operative Taylor.

"Mister Taylor?" began John, while Jane fought the urge to impale his chest up to her elbow with a strong biotic jab.

"Jacob. Or just Jake. I'm so glad to see you two right now," he holstered his weapon as he spoke, the relief evident on his face.

Jane grabbed the man by his collar and yanked him hard and down to her eye level. "You won't be in half a second if you don't start talking, Cerberus," she growled at the Operative.

Jacob glanced at John, well known to be the more level headed Shepard. His arms were crossed and his expression gave nothing away. He seemed a bit curious at the whole situation, perhaps wondering what abstract design his sister might paint with the operative's blood.

He turned back to Jane, her eyes and scars glowing with rage. Jacob knew that might be a side effect of the tech they used, but to see it in person was disarming to say the least.

"Whoa! I'll talk! I've got nothing to hide...," he quickly reassured the glowering woman, "You, both of you, died. We're not talking heart stopping on the operating table. You two were stone cold corpses, fit for fertilizer. Meat and tubes when we got you. We spent two years bringing you back."

"Bollocks. This is a trick. Give me the truth or I waste you here," replied the angry redhead, shaking the operative for emphasis.

"Hold on a minute! Do you remember being spaced? How do you think you ended up here? We found you and revived you," this was a half truth, but he could explain more as he understood it when the female Shepard calmed down.

"Fine, you rescued us. But two years?"

"Ma'am, just how long do you think it takes to bring someone back after falling from orbit? Why would I lie about that anyway? You'll find out soon enough," he said more calmly now as reason began to take hold of the woman.

John had to admit, it explained the new tech. But that meant a couple of other things... "So, Jacob, you brought us here. The Alliance wouldn't stand for that if they knew. And that means that no one else knows either, right?"

"That's right. The galaxy thinks the great Shepard twins are dead," he pointed to Jane, "buried next to your father in Manchester," turning to John now, "and in Arlington."

_Jane _wasn't_ buried in Arlington?_ John thought, _Why not?_ _It was such an honor, and it must have been quite a funeral. Mom must have been beside herself with grief, and Tali- __**Tali!**_

John tried to keep the fear from his voice as he spoke, "What about our old crew? Where are they?"

Jane pulled the man even closer, her nose touching his, "Yeah. _Where's Garrus_?"

"We lost track of Garrus after he left the citadel. Tali," he turned from Jane, anything to avoid looking her in the eyes, "is back on the Migrant Fleet. She's been commissioned, leading operations with an elite marine unit. Ashley is still with the alliance. Wrex is forming some kind of coalition on Tuchanka."

John felt a swell of pride when he heard the words 'leading' and 'elite' when Jacob referenced Tali. It was short lived. He needed to find her, and fast. It might already be too late. Two years of death was a heck of an obstacle for any relationship, even one with a Quarian.

"Alright," John spoke as if addressing a cashier after purchasing a new pair of shoes, "Now that that's out of the way, we'll be on our way. Jane, let him go," He addressed Jacob, "You can come with, if you like."

Jane complied. She knew what her brother had in mind. No one went to all this trouble for no reason. Cerberus wanted something, and Johnny had a plan to deal with it. He would tell her later, in private, but for the time being he wanted to play nice with Cerberus. That was fine with her. She might be a bit rude at times, perhaps overly aggressive, but she learned a long time ago to follow her brother's lead when it looked like he knew what he was doing. She released the operative.

Jacob let his relief show, "Yeah, that's the plan. I'll take you to a shuttle and we can go from there."

Jacob took off toward a door at the far side of the room, with John in tow. With a nod from her brother, Jane followed.

...

The shot rang though the quiet corridor, despite the torso of the scientist muffling most of the blast. John had wanted to stop the man before he opened the door, standing directly in front of it like he had been, but the scientist had palmed the controls before he had the opportunity.

Standing before him was a gorgeous brunette, her body the picture of feminine beauty. She wore a skin-tight black and white cat-suit, complete with outsized Cerberus logo over her left breast. He took longer than necessary to examine the symbol. Noticing her face for the first time... it left a little to be desired. John could swear her jaw doubled as a grenade launcher magazine in its off time.

While her breasts might have been the first thing to catch his eye, and her rubenesque cheekbones the second, the gun in her hand was definitely the third. The ex-Spectre felt only mildly upset that Cerberus employee had shot another and frankly he had already forgotten the scientist's name. He was a lot more concerned with gunplay anywhere near Jane's, or his, general direction.

"The _fuck_, you slag!" Jane, as usual, had beaten him to the punch. There would be muzzle sized welt on the dark-haired woman's forehead if she survived this.

"Back off, bluey, I knew what I was doing!" The woman dropped her pistol and raised her hands, trying to slowly back away from the weapon Jane held between her eyes. The redhead jammed her pistol even harder into her face, bringing her backpedaling to a halt.

"The hell you did, cunt!" John winced at his sister's behavior, this was excessive even for her. Then again, he'd never seen one of Jane's enemies live long enough to exchange words. His sister's new lease on life must have her feeling charitable.

Jacob raised his eyebrows and mouthed the word 'wow' to Miranda. He was beginning to question the wisdom of bringing the Shepards, Jane leastwise, back from the dead.

Jane eased the pressure on Miranda's forehead every so slightly and continued, "John was a foot away. What if you missed?"

The operative started, "I-"

"Don't fucking tell me you don't miss! Shit happens, even at point blank. And did you know what he had in him? What if you blasted some cybernetics out of his body and into my brother's head?" Jane lowered the pistol as her temper began to subside, her normal tone returned, "Can you fix him twice, Doc?"

"I'm sorry, Shepard. You're right. I shouldn't have done that. I... I wasn't thinking," her arms lowered and she sounded apologetic, "I'm here to help. That man was the one who reprogrammed the mechs. Now can we please get out of here?" she inquired.

"Good enough," Jane holstered he weapon pushed through the door, bouncing Miranda off her shoulder as the ex-Spectre passed into the shuttle bay. Jacob blinked twice, shrugged, then followed the women.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute," John interrupted. The group turned to him, genuinely confused at the delay. "First of all, she just shot a man in cold blood," he pointed to the brunette still rubbing the mark Jane had left her, "Secondly, there could still be people back there."

"You heard her, that corpse is the one who switched on the mechs," said Jane matter-of-factly. It seemed that John was off on one of his crusades again. Jane would have to make him see reason, "besides, he was Cerberus, so who gives a shit?"

Jacob and Miranda exchanged worried glances. John shook his head and started to turn back the way he came.

Miranda needed to put a stop to this. If his psyche profile was to be believed, the male Shepard wouldn't step foot into a shuttle before he was sure that he was the last one out.

"Listen Shepard, I understand where you're coming from, but," Miranda pulled up her omni-tool as it scanned for life-signs, "We're the only living people left on this station. As for me, I have the video and the key-log of him hacking our system. Once you get your Spectre status reinstated, you can view the evidence and arrest me if you like."

"See?" Jane said, grabbing her brother's hand, "Problem solved, let's go."

...

"We're finally getting to meet the big boss, huh, Doc?" Jane was already examining the exits for a hasty escape just in case she felt like killing the man.

"Sort of," replied Miranda, "I'm not your doctor, by the way. I was only in charge of the doctors you brought you back, but I am familiar with your cybernetics."

"Yeah, about that-"

"Later Jane," John quietly interjected with a whisper to her ear, "Whatever they did to us... There's nothing we can do about it at the moment, and I wouldn't expect them to tell the truth, besides. We'll get to the bottom of it later."

"Fine," the female Shepard hissed in her bother's ear. Turning to Miranda now, she changed the subject, "So what do we do?"

"Go in the that room there," The operative pointed to the far side of the large hall, "with your brother. The Illusive Man will appear as a hologram and there won't be any lag in the transmission."

Jane wondered at the technology behind it, but settled on leaving that discussion for another day. John motioned for Jane to lead the way, and she dutifully complied.

...

"Shepards. Glad you two made it. Project Lazarus succeeded beyond our wildest expectations."

Jane crossed her arms under her bust. She was in no mood for this. The sooner they got out of here, the sooner she could find a way to destroy this man and his organization. "Enough talk. What do you want from my brother and I?"

"Straight to the point, Miss Shepard, that's what I always liked about you," he took a drag from his cigarette, "We brought you back because entire Human colonies are being abducted and no one knows why. What's worse is that the Alliance doesn't seem willing or able to stop this travesty. That's where you two come in."

He finished his opening with another drag and a sip of amber liquor.

"Fine. We'll handle it," John said confidently while Jane looked on with shock.

"Just like that?" replied the Illusive Man.

"Yeah, just like that?" taken aback with her brother, Jane never thought she'd agree with the Illusive Man on anything.

"Just like that," confirmed John, pleased with his ability to surprise, "So what's the intel?"

"Well this was unexpected," the Illusive Man considered the last few ounces of his brandy, "I had a whole speech prepared."

John shook his head, "Yeah, didn't want to hear it"

"Hah!" guffawed Jane.

"Enough, you two. Here are the facts," The Illusive Man downed the last of his glass' contents, "Freedom's Progress has gone dark. It's the same as all the others. No one knows who's doing it, how they're doing it, or why. Whoever it is has some method of silencing entire colonies at before anyone can send distress signals. Go there, learn as much as you can, and get back to me."

He took a another drag of his cigarette before snubbing it out and lighting a new one.

The Illusive Man continued. "John, you should know that Freedom's Progress has one non-human resident. A Quarian named Veetor. His presence might help you in locating your old flame."

"Thanks," John grunted. As much as he hated Cerberus, and therefore the man at its head, the Illusive Man had just given him a very valuable piece of information that he could have easily kept to himself. If he was trying to win John over, this, and project Lazarus, were good starts. "And thank you for bringing back my sister and I."

"Of course, Shepard. Good luck."

...

John called the two Cerberus operatives to where he and Jane had stood quietly conversing.

"Here's the deal," began John, "We need to get to Freedoms Progress immediately, but should be plenty of time to plan and we need to clear up a few things first."

The operatives nodded while Jane gave a look that defied anyone to argue.

"Jane," John indicated his sister with an open hand, "wants whatever ships or shuttles we use completely stripped of all Cerberus logos and replaced with Alliance ones. This is not optional. Make it happen."

"On it now, John," replied Miranda while sending a text message with her omni-tool.

John smiled at her ability to get things done, "Also, the chain of command is as follows. On the ground, I'm in charge. Jane is second in command. After that, you're all the same to me."

John turned to his sister, who gave a broad smile, "If we ever get a ship, Jane is in charge. She said she might figure out the rest later."

...

"Let me get this straight," John couldn't quite believe what he heard, "You're telling me that we're going into what is very possibly a hostile situation, facing an unknown enemy that can make an entire colony disappear, and we've only got between now and the time we land to plan?"

"And," Jane added, "It's just going to be the four of us?" She didn't feel the need to include their pilot in the equation. There was no way she'd let their ticket off this rock leave the cockpit for even a second.

"That's right," Miranda smiled, "Yourself, your brother, Jacob, and myself will be enough. It's just an investigation. Honestly, we expect that whoever did this won't have stayed around long enough for an introduction."

"Well, it is what it is," John concluded. Logistical support was next to nothing, they had hardly a fire team between them, and they would only have access to what they were carrying. Heaven help them if their shuttle suffered damage or if they got overwhelmed and had to dig in for any extended period.

"I know you don't like working like this," said Jacob, attempting to mollify the twins, "I was Alliance myself, and I thought this sort of thing was unheard of before I got here. But as wealthy as Cerberus is, we have next to nothing compared to Alliance resources. Plus we have to keep a low profile."

"Low profile? If it wasn't for us, there'd still be a two meter high Cerberus logo on the side of this thing," Jane pounded the bulkhead of the shuttle with a fist, "that reminds me, you and princess need to find some tape to cover those," she pointed to the logos on Jacob and Miranda's uniforms.

"Jane," Miranda said in the patronizing tone of a mother explaining the way of the galaxy to an upset child, "I will _not_ be putting tape on my uniform."

"That's okay," Jane presented a toothy grin, "I'll be more than happy to cut that badge off you instead. It's not like you've left much to the imagination anyway." Jane reached for her knife as she spoke.

John, always the peacemaker, reached to forestall his sibling. "Miranda, please, we can't let anyone here think you're Cerberus. They may not have the same view of the organization as you do and it could hinder our efforts. Tape it over, black it out, or if it's sewn on, cut the threads. Just get rid of it or you can guard the shuttle with the pilot."

John thought he was being more than fair with these Cerberus operatives. Sure they had given his sister and himself a new lease on life, something for which he would be forever grateful, but if they wanted him on their little operation then it would be done his way.

"Besides," John continued, "If you two don't want to wear any armor, that's fine, but you could change into something to help you blend in. Colonist outfits or something."

"Good idea Shep, but we don't have a change of clothes," supplied Jacob as he tore a strip of all-purpose adhesive tape from a roll.

"We'll make a note to get you something in the future," John said, distracted as he brought up his omni-tool. "Let's take a look at the layout of this place."

Jane and Jacob huddled around the glowing orange display. The omni-tool's software compared the ship's scans of the colony with pre-loaded floor plans and maps. Icons popped up as flashing symbols above certain locations as the computer determined whether they were storage areas, fuel depots, probable safe houses, dwellings, and so on. It identified the main spaceport, alternate landing sites, choke points and other likely ambush locations, avenues of approach to the city center, and any other key terrain of military value. The sophisticated Alliance program, that John hoped was stolen, left the former Spectre quite impressed.

John began briefing his plan just as Miranda joined the little group, fresh strips of tape masking the symbol on her bust.

"We're landing here," John pointed to one of the alternate landing sites roughly five hundred meters from the town, "and skirting the wood-line on foot along this linear danger area-"

"Road, Johnny, that's a road," Jane supplied for the benefit of the lone civilian in the group.

"Right, that's what I said, we'll skirt the wood-line-"

"Trees," interrupted Jane with a wink to Miranda. The brunette grimaced and rolled her eyes at the patronizing female Shepard.

"Yes, again, we'll move in the cover," John paused to glance at his sister. When she only gave a cheerful grin, he continued, "provided by these _trees_ here, that parallel the _road_, until we reach the town center. If we make contact on the way, expect to disengage so we can lure them into the woods. Jacob, you suppress with light automatic fire while we move."

The dark skinned man nodded. He was no stranger to this type of operation.

John continued, "Once we reach the town, we'll go house to house, room to room, looking for information on the whereabouts an disposition of the colonists. If we meet any hostilities that we can't handle one-on-one, same deal. We lure them around a corner or down an alley, Jacob, you provide cover, and the rest of us will flank and ambush."

John looked around the small seating area of the shuttle, searching their faces for understanding. He paused at Miranda.

"I don't know how familiar you are with Alliance tactics and procedures, and I don't have time to teach you. Are you comfortable with this?"

Miranda had been waiting for the question, "Of course I am. Cerberus started as an Alliance organization. We're taught from the same playbook as you."

"Glad to hear it," John replied, nonplussed by her attempt to establish military credentials.

John pressed on with the briefing, explaining the exact route they would take to each building, alternate routes in case of hostilities or obstructions, when to engage enemies and when not to, what to if they encountered the Quarian pilgrim or other civilians, and a whole host of other considerations. When he finished, he felt he had covered every possibility imaginable.

...

"Guardian six, this is Guardian seven, over."

"Guardian seven, this is Guardian six _ra'estah_, go for Guardian six actual."

"Negative, six _ra'estah_, I need six actual, not her damn CMO."

"Guardian six is busy hacking the Alliance encryption, seven, says to just send it, over."

"Ugh, fine. FO reports small Human trans-orbital shuttle on landing approach, about a half kilometer north of the settlements, grid eight three four six nine two seven one. Guardian seven, out."

"Ma'am, did you catch that?"

"Yes, Marat. Let Prazza know to stay put and grab some cover before they spot him."

"Understood, Ma'am."

Tali shut her eyes briefly and gave an exasperated sigh. The forward observer functioned as her eyes on the battlefield, not the platoon sergeant's. He should have contacted her or her communications operator directly. She resolved to discuss the slight with the private at his next evaluation.

"Marat?"

"Yeah boss?" asked her _ra'estah_.

"See if you can get comms with that shuttle. Let them know what we're doing here," Tali turned her attention back to her hacking.

"Yes, Ma'am," Marat started working his omni-tool.

After a few minutes, the communications operator reported, "No Ma'am, they're using some kind of variable encryption and frequency hopping. Three to five second duration. Can you hack that?"

"Yes, but not before their frequency changes and the encryption resets. We'll have to pay them a visit. Gather third squad."

...

John concluded the conference while the shuttle made its final descent.

"I know it's not much, but we'll make the best of it. Any questions?"

"I have one," Miranda began with a half smile, "What do we do if we encounter a Quarian marine detachment?"

"Uhh..." John hated being stumped, if only for a second. He should have considered that possibility; the Quarians were very protective of, well, everything and they might just send someone to check on their citizen.

Before he could formulate an answer, the female operative interjected, "I only ask because that's exactly what's waiting for us down there. The pilot spotted them a few seconds ago."

Sure enough, while she spoke four separate Migrant Fleet symbols illuminated and flashed on Johns omni-tool. Two were squad sized, one each at the eastern and western outskirts of the town. They looked to be securing the main entrances and exits. One symbol was either a single individual or a pair of people, six hundred meters east of the landing site. That was most likely a sniper team, a forward observer team, or both. The final symbol troubled John the most. It was also squad sized, moving toward the landing zone, and at only five hundred meters away would surround the shuttle before the twins could even get the hatch open. Damn, but Quarians could run fast.

The shuttle touched down with a reverberating thud and the symbols stopped flashing. That meant that real-time sensor updates had ceased. Most likely, the sensors' range had dramatically reduced as the shuttle no longer held the advantage of altitude. Real-time updates wouldn't restart until the Quarians were back in range, most likely about the same time they decided to walk up and knock on the airlock door.

"Alright, gear up, weapons holstered or collapsed," ordered John as he reached for his helmet, "We've only got a few seconds before they get here."

...

Tali could see the shuttle sitting in a clearing from behind a cluster of rocks. It was about a hundred and fifty meters from her position with Marat. She checked her omni-tool one last time to make sure third squad was in position, then signaled Marat and hurdled their cover before breaking into a run.

After sprinting for all but the last fifty meters, Tali slowly approached the vessel with her _ra'estah_ behind and to the left of her. As a show of good faith, she carried no weapons at the ready, instead electing to leave her shotgun collapsed in its normal position and her pistol holstered. The communications operator could cover the two of them with his sub-machinegun if necessary, but the lieutenant wasn't expecting trouble.

Humans may be more unpredictable than most races, but they responded within a documented spectrum of behaviors. These humans belonged to the Alliance military if their shuttle was anything to go by. That told Tali that they existed in an even smaller spectrum, bound by strict military orders and regulations as they were. Still, disastrous misunderstandings and rogue agents were always a possibility, to say nothing of infiltration with a stolen craft.

She waved Marat off as they came within arms reach of the shuttle. It was by far the most glaring risk she had taken since beginning her career as a marine. The occupants almost certainly knew what was immediately outside their airlock: two quarians, one with a sub-machinegun in hand, one holding nothing. For all Tali knew, the shuttle could contain anything from unarmed dignitaries to three tons of high explosives ready to blow.

Knowing that she didn't have comms with the shuttle, she would make contact with the only option available to her. She raised a hand to knock.

...

"Sensors just pinged," John alerted the group, "Two just outside the airlock. No sign of the rest of the squad. Probably in defensive positions around us."

"They want to parley? Better than blasting us to bits and pieces," Miranda smirked, " We can work with that. If this doesn't go well we can use them as Human- Err, Quarian shields or take them as hostages while we escape."

Jane might agree with Miranda's sentiment, but there was no way she's admit it to the woman. More importantly, she knew how John felt on the subject and that was the end of the discussion as far as she was concerned.

"No, no, and hell no," Jane said, shaking her head, hair falling over her face, "If they start trouble, we step back in the airlock and get the fuck out. Right, Nee?"

"Right, Sis," John confirmed. Though his sister spoke with as much sincerity as she felt, which was considerable, John couldn't help but feel that it was only because he was sitting right next to her. He continued, "We'll have plenty of warning if they want to open up on us. Their parley team will need at least a few seconds to back away and give that squad a clear shot."

"So what are we waiting for?" Jacob inquired.

A soft knocking sounded throughout the craft. The ex-Spectres and Cerberus operatives exchanged glances of surprise and humor.

"Nothing. Let's see what they want," replied John as he palmed the door controls.

...

The door opened before Tali. She couldn't help but let her guard down at the sight in front of her. Two humans, elite N7 operators judging by the unmistakable armor, greeted her. Two more humans stood just behind them, offering as much from their expressions as their fully-masked counterparts.

The pair in front reminded Tali so much of the twins that she felt her heart ache and her throat close in at the memories they forced on her. Their heights, their builds, and everything about their body language appeared similar to John and his sister... The way the female stood with her arms crossed and a hip cocked out. The way the male leaned on the door frame with one hand while another reached to rub at the back of his neck. The resemblance was uncanny, especially when one considered the incredible variety of Human body types and sizes. Tali had never cried on a mission, and as much as she wanted to, she wasn't about to start now. She pushed the memories aside. _You are a machine. Become the machine. Find out what they want. Nothing more._

The overall effect the Humans had was to completely disarm the young woman, figuratively, if not literally. She wanted to reach out and touch the male, maybe hold his hand, embrace him warmly, possibly run her fingers along his face. She wanted to treat this stranger just like she would her dead lover. She took a step back, blinking and stunned at the revelation of where her mind lead her. She needed to be done with this encounter before she dishonored John's memory further.

She couldn't stop herself from assuming a nervous, submissive pose as she twiddled her fingers, something she hadn't done in a year at least. She needed to get a hold of herself and not let them see any weaknesses. These Humans might not be pointing guns at them, but not every Human was like John. These were elite Soldiers, trained killers through and through.

She slowly looked up from the spot of ground she hadn't realized she had been staring at. She made a conscious effort to lock eyes with the closest Human, the male N7 operator, and stop her fingers from moving. Carefully, she brought her hands behind her back and held one with the other, mimicking a stance John had always used to project confidence, a confidence she didn't feel at the moment.

"Welcome to F-Freedom's Progress from the, um, the Mi-Migrant Fleet," Tali stuttered, eyes shifting left and right, "I think we, well uh, we have mutual goals here."

It seemed to Tali that the situation had just taken a swift turn into the absurd. Though she hated to admit it, she had killed dozens of Humans employed by Cerberus. Many of them were larger than this one, and he wasn't even holding a weapon. This man was _not_ John, she knew that to be true, so she couldn't help but wonder why she couldn't even form a single coherent sentence in his presence.

The armored male took a step forward. He loomed over the nervous lieutenant like a massive colossus above a prostrate worshipper. His stature, though standing only a few inches taller than her, combined with his perfect posture and the height of the shuttle's deck cut an imposing visage. Tali tried and failed to maintain the veneer of self-assurance. She glanced at him as he started to move before instantly turning her eyes back to the dirt.

...

John took a step forward when he heard the Quarian representative speak. He motioned for the other members of his party to stand back as he jumped from the deck an onto the snow-covered grass below.

There was something alarmingly familiar about this young woman, especially her voice. Quite a few people assumed that all Quarians sounded alike, that vocalizers all provided identical tinny mechanical voices, but anyone who spent time among them knew that couldn't be further from the truth. Accents, older and newer versions of translation software, and typical differences in tone and speech patterns were all present among the race.

In fact, John had never heard two Quarians who sounded exactly alike. Until now.

It wasn't just the voice, either. Although her suit was different, newer and less haggard, this woman's _realk_ had an identical pattern to Tali's. The color was deeper and richer than he remembered, but still the same engineer-purple that she always wore. Her build, her stance, and her shapely chest matched Tali's in every way. Even the woman's obvious trepidation in his presence conjured up memories of Tali from around the time he worked up the courage to ask her out.

John couldn't believe his luck. He was almost positive that the young woman, a little over a meter away from him, was his missing girlfriend. What were the chances of being reintroduced to the love of his life, two years after his death, on his first mission out? The Illusive Man must have known she would be here. The galaxy was too cruel for this kind of good luck.

He knew himself well enough to recognize when emotions were getting the better of him. A sense of desperate longing crept over him at the sight of this woman, cold, cloying, all encompassing. He tried to close his eyes to the sight of her, regain his bearings, make his thoughts his own once again, but he couldn't bring himself to shut her image out for even a second.

He had to be absolutely certain this was Tali before he did anything too stupid. Scooping up some random Quarian lieutenant in a bear hug and spinning her around until they were both sick could go over poorly.

Taking off his helmet would be convenient, but he still retained enough control of his faculties to know that a six hundred meter headshot was nothing to a good infiltrator. Seera could have done it blindfolded. Simply name-dropping wasn't an option either. These Quarians were most likely Farseekers like Kal, and one did not give or ask for names in the galactic operator community. If this wasn't Tali, that was the quickest way to earn a 'go fuck yourself' and kill any chance at cooperation.

John tried a more circumspect approach, "Thank you for the welcome, Marine," The envoy's head shot up, eyes boring into his, "I, too, think we have similar desires."

The Quarian's eyes darted between John and his sister, obviously searching for understanding in a situation she wasn't prepared for. Seeing the lieutenant's reaction, the other Quarian took a step back a stroked the frame of his pistol with a free hand. John was almost certain now that this woman was Tali. Still, he resisted the urge to carry her over the threshold of the shuttle and kick his fellow humans out for the next five to twenty minutes.

Before he continued, John felt a feminine body press against him from behind. A hand fell on his shoulder and he and Jane exchanged sideways glances. On the same page as always, Jane's eyes told him that she knew this was Tali as much as he did.

John took a step closer, "Before we get into what happened to this colony, maybe you can tell me about a Quarian friend of mine," John brought a fist to his facemask and cleared his throat, "Her name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

...

"No! _**No!**_" Tali screamed.

She tried to leap back at hearing her name, but couldn't. She tried to go for her shotgun and order this living forgery back onto its shuttle at gunpoint, but she couldn't bring herself to do that either.

Marat saw his platoon leader's reaction and inched his weapon a little higher at his side. He couldn't see any threats yet, so he decided against leveling his pistol on the Human. Though shocked and upset, the lieutenant must have known this man, maybe a lover who jilted her. It was such a small galaxy. To Marat it sounded like a personal problem and definitely not worth causing an incident over.

"You are _not_ him! And you," Tali pointed to Jane, "are _not_ her! They're both dead."

"Tali-"

"Do not call me that! I saw you- Him! I saw _him_ die," She growled, head low and shaking, she pounded both fists on her faceplate. Tears began flowing freely, her promise to herself broken.

"Why?" she moaned, imploring of Ancestors that refused to listen, "Why did they do this to me? To him?"

The John-thing placed a hand on her shoulder. She wanted to tear away from it, put the muzzle of her shotgun in its face and pull the trigger. To her dismay, she found herself pressing into the being's touch.

She wondered if that was the idea behind its creators. Many people knew she was compromised by her bond with John. Their plan had worked, it seemed. She felt reality slipping away like air in a vacuum. She wanted nothing more than to live this beautiful lie. If this clone or machine or whatever chose to kill her five minutes from now, that was fine. She would have five more minutes with John.

But duty... Duty to the Fleet pulled back out of the _ialira_ hole she had willingly fallen deeper and deeper into. She pushed both rage and love to the side, as age and training had taught her to do. _I am a machine. Nothing more. Do your job. Determine what this thing wants. Analyze its threat potential. Find out if... if it might possibly could be... _Him_. They never found their bodies..._

"You two. Please, I have to know. Take off your helmets," she pointed behind them, into the shuttle, "we can do it in there, in the cover of your vessel. No harm will come to you."

"Of course, um, Miss Zorah," the John-thing said, nodding before turning to the other Humans, "This will only take a second, people."

Tali slowly made her way into the shuttle, sparing a glance at Marat, "Wait here. Tell the others we are going to discuss the mission. If this shuttles moves with me still on board, blow it out of the sky."

"Yes, Ma'am," replied the communications operator.

Once inside with the two armored Humans seated across from her, they began unclasping their helmets. Tali knew what to expect, a clone would be identical to the original, but still it shocked her far more than she would have thought.

Seeing John's face in front of her after two years filled her with more emotion than she could handle at one time. Memories, hopes, dreams, even lust flooded her mind. Added to that was reminders of a life that never was and never could be, the despair of loss, and the pain of what she had endured as the price of loving a man long gone.

Her engagement ring gouged into her sternum as she doubled over in her seat, head reaching down to her knees. She cried harder than she had at any time since she woke up in the Alliance hospital after Alchera. Her back heaved up and down with each painful sob. She gasped with each breath as her lungs struggled for air, compressed by the bent position she forced herself into.

The thing, John, started rubbing her back and her sobs somehow began to lessen. Her breathing slowed, coming in calm, regular intervals.

"Tali, I'm so, so sorry," he said, "I came back as soon as I could. I will explain everything."

She didn't want to feel better, not like this, not from some imposter. She couldn't let herself betray John like this. John had died and burned to ashes. This couldn't be him, no matter how much she wanted, felt, or knew that the opposite was true.

Tali felt the hand on her back move to her shoulder and squeeze, gently pulling her up. She looked up into the creature's eyes, John's eyes, loving and blue. The pulling urged her toward him.

She broke at that moment, defeated by her own primal addiction to John Alan Shepard. She _needed_ to be comforted by this creature, to be close to it. She hated it, she loved it, and she hated that she loved it.

In the small confines of the shuttle, sitting directly across from this man, Tali's knees were only inches from his. She placed her hands on his thighs and used them to support herself as slowly climbed into his lap. She wrapped her arms around the man, loosely at first, and buried her facemask into his neck.

She adjusted her olfactory filters and took a deep breath. Giddiness and arousal mixed with a sense of completeness as she inhaled. If this was a clone, it was a damn good one. Her arms tightened around his neck as her hands carefully moved and kneaded over his back and shoulders. They pressed into him, acting on their own accord, searching for a way inside his armor.

Tali stopped herself and considered. There was an easy way to find out if this really was John. She almost didn't want to ask, afraid of what the answer might be.

She moved her head face him. Noticing for the first time the scars on cheeks, she slowly brought a hand up to trace the deep grooves with a finger. At her touch, the man she hoped was John closed his eyes and sighed. Tilting his head back slightly, she continued, the intimate act clearly relaxing the man.

Encouraged by his reaction, Tali posed her question, "You... Well, if you are John, you can tell me something that only he would know, yes?"

"Of course I can," The Human appeared to consider for a second, "May the ancestors direct my steps to tranquility and serenity and-"

"That's it?" Tali interrupted, jumping off the imposter in a fury, "My _old_ passphrase that half the _fre'eg_ing Citadel could have heard John say to me?"

Tali was too angry to be crushed by the revelation that this wasn't John. It was stupid, really, to entertain the idea for even a second that her long gone lover had miraculously descended from the Ancestors and been resurrected. She had crawled into that thing's _lap_... That was okay, John would forgive her once she removed his beautiful face from this abomination's body.

Seeing Tali calmly reach for her shotgun, Jane climbed over John in an attempt to shield her brother from the blast. Jacob pulled out his sub-machinegun while Miranda's biotics flared bright blue in the dim cabin.

"Wait!" John cried out, "Everybody calm down, please. That's not why I told you your old passphrase."

Tali hesitated, transfixed by the creature's imploring gaze. The others in the shuttle similarly halted their movements.

"I told you that," he continued, "because that's what I had engraved inside your engagement ring."

...

As John spoke, he fervently hoped she had discovered the ring. If not, he probably had another three seconds to stall her further and find something else to confirm his identity. Maybe he'd try mentioning their first date, or what they did together the night before Ilos.

At hearing John's words, Tali's thought processes ground to standstill. Everything about her life in the last two years shattered in an instant. Shards of memory fell away as gap between _then_ and _now_ closed in on itself, disappearing into foggy nothingness. The nightmare was over, almost entirely forgotten already.

She saw her _inszel_ with bright new eyes and remembered the writing inside the ring. She could check the photos she had always been too upset to look at, but it didn't matter. Only John would have known that he had given her the ring at all.

"John!" she finally screamed as she leapt onto him. She held John as if he might leave her forever if she let him go for even a second, tight enough to make breathing difficult for both of them, "_My_ Shepard! How? Why? Where the _fre'eg_ have you been for the last two years, you _bosh'tet_?"

Tali asked, but she honestly didn't care. There would be plenty of time to be mad at him later. His abandonment, and the reasons behind it, held no significance whatsoever compared to his living breathing presence beneath her.

"I died. So did Jane," he gasped under the Quarian vise while stroking her neck behind her _realk_, "We spent the last two years being rebuilt. We've been out the entire time and only woke up a few hours ago."

Tali knew from the _Normandy _that Human tech was impressive, but to think that they could resurrect the dead was almost unimaginable. Almost. If anyone was worth that kind of effort, it was the Shepard twins.

"Why didn't the Alliance tell us?" she stammered, "Why did they hold a funeral?"

"They didn't know. It wasn't the Alliance who brought us back," he moved his palm to cover her vocalizer before she could respond and whispered, "I will tell you all about it, in private."

Although John succeeded in not eyeing the pair of unarmored Humans as he spoke, he didn't have to. It was as plain as day that the twins' newest acquaintances had something to do with their miraculous recovery. They weren't Alliance and they were here with them only hours after waking. Nor did John feel like he could speak freely in front of them. Asking for privacy had nothing to do with Jane; as far as Tali could tell, her _inszel_ shared everything with the captain.

The pair of Humans were the Shepard twins' minders, then. Their purpose was to ensure their loyalty to whatever organization had revived them. That brought up thoughts of control chips, pain implants, and various other grotesqueries. If it came to it, she could smuggle the Shepards to the Fleet, maybe used some of her father's or aunt's pull and have some Quarian cyber-physicians look at them. They were the best in the galaxy, after all.

Tali nodded in silent understanding. It was best not to alert the minders that anything was amiss. Answers could wait... for now. "Sounds good, John. Would you and the captain like to discuss our mission here?"

John let a genuine smile cross his face. Having Tali back on the team made losing the last two years of his life nearly worth it. She was definitely still into him, of that he was sure, and it felt like they might simply pick up their relationship right where it had left off. He almost felt sorry for the poor Quarain sap who just had his girl stolen by a dead Human.

"Absolutely," he replied, shifting her comfortable but not inconsiderable weight in his lap.

The conference lasted another ten minutes, consisting mostly of Jane smirking, Jacob looking both excited and interested, John and Tali doing things that should probably be done out of public view or at the very least while incredibly drunk, and Miranda looking thoroughly disgusted with the whole affair.

When the preparations were finalized the team exited the craft and Tali, hand-in-hand with John, approached Marat. For his part, _ra'estah_ could only nod his head, a knowing smile visible in his eyes.

"Kiss and make up, boss?" he holstered his weapon as they neared, "I knew you had it in you."

"Shut up, Marat," Tali tilted her head and pulled John a little closer.

**That was a long one. So long, in fact, that I had to split it into two parts. **

**Please let me know how I did with this chapter.**


	3. Some Nights

**Bioware owns the characters and everything else you can find in the Mass Effect Wiki. Calinstel owns 99.5% of the ideas behind the Quarians that I'm using. The rest is mine. **

**This has been updated to address some valid reader concerns!  
**

Chapter 3: Some Nights

"Yes, Ma'am," replied Marat, "shutting up now."

The Lieutenant was in the best mood he'd seen ever seen her in.

"Good. I want you to meet someone," Tali tilted her head toward the Human she held hands with, a smile reaching her eyes, "This is my _inszel_, John. He's been gone a long time. John, this is my _ra'estah_, Sergeant Marat'Kovar vas Senafyr."

"Nice to meet you, Sergeant," John extended a hand and Marat took it, familiar with both the Human gesture and the famous individual making it.

"It's a pleasure, Sir." The sergeant looked behind the pair to the three Humans standing just behind them, then back to the happy couple, "So, boss, we're all friends now, right?"

"More or less," Tali answered honestly, "We'll be working together hand-in glove while we cordon and search the colony. Let Prazza know that he's to stay with first and second squads and secure the perimeter. We conduct the search. After that, get the squad leaders on a conference call so I can brief them."

"On it, Ma'am."

Tali could have told Prazza directly what she needed him to do, indeed protocol would have her do exactly that considering she wasn't otherwise occupied, but she just didn't feel like dealing with that overbearing _bosh'tet_ at the moment. She was flying high on the rush of having John back, endorphins being what they were, and she would be damned if she allowed Prazza to kill her buzz.

A few moments later, and after some angry chirping and chattering from the platoon sergeant, Marat returned. He held his omni-tool arm extended, three small holos of Quarian marines floating just above his wrist.

Tali addressed the three, "We are going to conduct the cordon and search of the objective as planned, with two small additions. First, we have one attachment, an Alliance fire-team," the squad leaders nodded in unison, pleased at this development.

Extra help was always welcome and the Alliance presence would add legitimacy to their mission. The Quarians had prepared for Alliance intervention, the world was claimed by the Humans after all, and this was the best possible outcome. The alternative was that they would be the ones attached to an Alliance unit, or worse, they would be barred from action or asked to lave the system altogether.

"Second," The platoon leader continued, bouncing on her toes instead of her usual pacing, "we have the added task of securing any information that may lead to the whereabouts of the colonists or help determine what happened to them."

Again, the squad leaders nodded, though less vigorously this time. It was expected; the Humans would no doubt have their own agenda here, one centering on the missing colonists and what in the name of the Ancestors had befallen the small colony. While a quick search and extraction for the missing pilgrim would take far less time, turning their mission into a full blown investigation was a small price to pay for smooth relay transit and an Alliance blessing.

A fourth Quarian joined the trio floating above Marat's wrist.

"Why are we wasting time with this, Ma'am?" Praza interrupted, "Veetor could be injured. We need to get to him and get him off this world as fast as possible. We can't afford to help the Humans like this... Let them do their own thing. Besides, our orders were clear and you don't have the authority to change them."

"Prazza, this isn't up for discussion," Tali hissed through clinched teeth. Calling it a debate would imply that the _bosh'tet_ had any say in the matter. Why did Prazza always have to question her? Why couldn't he have waited at least, expressed his concern in private instead bringing it up in front of the other squad leaders and John? She wanted to show her _inszel_ what she had done with herself for the past two years, and Prazza had succeeded in humiliating her in front of the one person who really mattered.

Tali closed her eyes briefly and tried to calm herself before continuing. "Veetor, if he's still alive, may have information useful to the Alliance. I think the lives of countless Humans on other colonies is worth this small delay. I am an officer of the Migrant Fleet, duly commissioned by the conclave. In the absence of higher authority, I can adjust or even countermand orders as the situation dictates," in as low and menacing tone as possible, she finished, "_The situation dictates it_."

Prazza did not appreciate the threatening attitude of the young woman, but held his tongue. He would file an official complaint and request a transfer when he got back to the Fleet. That should counteract any negative administrative action on her part. For the time being, however, he would have to have to put up with her. He gave a curt nod and blinked off the sergeant's omni-tool.

"Alright," Tali's mood brightened with the absence of her platoon sergeant, "Dalra, you and third squad, the Humans, and I will head to the western entrance to town and rendezvous with second. Once there, we'll begin searching the place. Tir and Gali," she gestured to the first and second squad leaders respectively, then repressed a grimace, "work with _Prazza_ to cordon the town. Set up reconnaissance patrols to contain those mechs we spot. Any questions? Everyone clear?"

She was greeted with a chorus of nods and sounds in the affirmative. She cut the channel and made a hand sign, signaling the unseen third squad down from the hills to greet the newest, if temporary, additions to Guardian platoon.

...

The Quarians and Humans marched together towards the city, taking the most direct route possible. The reconnaissance data provided by the Farseekers confirmed that there was nothing left moving on the outskirts of the colony, nothing but the local fauna at least. Once they reached they urban areas they would switch to a more tactical movement technique, as armed mechs had been seen patrolling the streets. For the time being they moved double-file, weapons at the ready, one column of troops on each side of the road to town.

Soon they would link up with second squad before conducting a detailed search of the town, while the remaining squads and Prazza moved to secure the perimeter. For the time being, however, John had time to talk with some of Quarian battle-buddies. He marched at the head of the column to the left of the road, while Tali took the lead on the right side, roughly ten meters away. Jane plodded along behind her, and behind John marched Tali's communications operator. Snow gently fell and softly crunched under foot as the group continued to its destination. The chilling precipitation obscured visored and visor-less vision alike.

John reminisced of days spent in training and the early part of his career, when this sort of activity was so common as to be mundane. He glanced behind him, seeking a common bond.

"Marat, right?" he inquired.

"Yes, Sir?"

"You've been a marine a long time?" John judged that he had not been, but did not want to insult the apparently young fellow.

"No sir. Straight out of boot camp then to _ra'estah_ training and Farseeker school. This is my first unit," Marat glanced over to his CO then back to the Human, "Been here a few months, ever since Lieutenant Zorah took command."

The way the marine turned to Tali did not go unnoticed by John. To him it seemed like a look of admiration or appreciation, but with the visors it was always hard to tell. Perhaps this was John's replacement over the past two years. The former Spectre remembered that Quarian couples were almost always assigned to the same units or stationed together aboard ships. That had been the case with the with several of the marines he had briefly trained with on Talis Fia. Even Kal had apparently fallen for one of his troops, as of two years ago anyway.

Of course, there were plenty single Quarian servicemen and women as well, but when they got to a new duty station they didn't remain that way for long. In that sense, they weren't at all any different from Humans.

"What is _rah-esta_ training? It's a term that doesn't translate," John asked, genuinely curious about all things military.

The Quarian hesitated. Would this Human understand the implications of the title, maybe get a little jealous that his role was being usurped? Marat doubted it. A Human probably would not understand the intricacies of Quarian culture like that. Besides, sometimes one's significant other couldn't take the job. Though obviously untrue, rumor had it that the boss' Human lover had been dead. At the very least, what he had seen today confirmed that the male Shepard hadn't been available or around the lieutenant in a long time. Even most Quarians wouldn't get upset under those circumstances.

"_Ra'estah_," Marat pronounced slowly, "It's the title we use for the bodyguard and special assistant assigned to officers... Every officer gets one. I trained to be one as my Fleet occupational specialty."

"That sounds interesting. Kind of like the adjutant that general officers get," John continued marching silently for a moment before turning back to the Quarian, "But why doesn't that translate? Those are usually words that have some unique cultural significance."

Marat had tried to skirt the issue, give as little information as possible, but it seemed that this Human was fairly perceptive when it came to interspecies communication. Given that his former-turned-current _nehya_ was Quarian, that hardly surprised him. But the Alliance operator was still Human, and that meant he probably could not care less when he found out.

Then again, if this Human was anything like the woman he found himself reunited with, Marat might be in for a serious fight. The lieutenant could be, well, _intense_ at the best of times.

The Farseeker looked again to his commanding officer, seeing her in a new light for the first time. She no longer seemed like the strict disciplinarian who couldn't take a joke, well known for acting like the biggest, meanest, queen _iaysaz_ in the Fleet. Whereas before she appeared so much older than her years, now she had the body language of a girl barely out of adolescence. Gone was the grizzled but still attractive veteran, suffering from a serious case of undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder. Replacing her was a young woman with a defiant spring in her step and... bobbing her head in time to _music_? On a _combat patrol_?

"Right, Sir. The term describes an person who acts as the officer's adjutant, secretary, personal body guard, communications operator, driver, pilot, and so on. The meaning is heavy in Quarian tradition, that is... The tradition of a mate seeing to those duties. The position evolved out of that. But," he quickly added, "it doesn't need to be filled by a bondmate. It can be done by anyone with the training, as is the case with me."

John chuckled at the thought. He figured it had to be something like that. In a platoon sized element, there would only be one officer, which meant that that individual either had to be sleeping with a subordinate or wouldn't get to see their mate very often. The former was likely just shunned in the Fleet as it was in the Alliance, while the later could crush a Quarian's morale. A justifiable 'special' position would have been made at first, then developed into a more official one over the years.

"So you weren't interested in Tali at all? Was she seeing anyone else?" John asked as nonchalantly as possible.

"No, Sir," Marat was glad for the opportunity to clear this up. Animosity from this man was not something the Quarian wished for, "I did decide to join the _re'estah_ corps in the hopes of finding a mate, yes, but until fifteen minutes ago the CO has hardly been, well, relationship material."

The conversation grew silent as John appeared puzzled. Shaking his head, Marat decided he had sounded a bit insulting and tried to elaborate further, "Not that she's not attractive. I mean, _keelah_, look at her," both men turned to the buoyant officer who didn't march along so much as float and bounce above the ground. The young man then regarded the scarred ex-Spectre, "She's pretty damn well out of your league, you lucky _bosh'tet_, Sir. But she's been the cold sort ever since we first got to this unit."

Cold was an understatement. The lieutenant's occupational specialty had been engineering and the consensus held that she fixed machinery by terrifying it into submission. One of Marat's friends who grew up with her aboard the _Neema_ couldn't believe his description of her, but terrible things can happen... Things that can change a person.

"If you want to know if she's bonding with anyone else," Marat continued, "You'll have to ask her, Sir. I can tell you that she hasn't mentioned anyone in front me, nor have I heard any rumors on the subject, except... well..."

"Well what?"

"Uh, I don't mean to offend," the Quarian lowered his gaze and searched the ground, "it's not me, but, uh, rumor had it she was in the locker..."

"That sounds like... Ah, I understand. I'm not offended and I don't think she'd be either. All the same, I don't think she swings that way," John smiled broadly at the mental image.

...

Approaching the city, the augmented squad could make out only two Quarians in the center of the roadway. They held weapons at the ready, clad in dull red suits they stood almost motionless against the snowy deluge. The remaining members of second squad would have taken cover behind the surrounding trees and boulders, or sought concealment under cammo cloaks.

As the group neared to within a dozen meters, the two sentries called out something in Khelish that wouldn't translate. One held out a hand to stop the advancing party, while the other took several steps to the side and inched her weapon a little higher.

John felt something was amiss. This was not the welcoming he expected. Link-ups in the field were always a tense affair, fratricide being a persistent danger. John held up a fist, signaling the group to halt. Those behind John stopped moving when he did, and Jane caught sight of the gesture and halted her group as well. Tali continued a few steps more before noticing she marched alone, then halted with a look of confusion, clear even through her visor.

"Tali," John asked calmly, "what do they want?"

There was no response. She continued to appear as confused as before.

"Tali."

Again, she gave no indication of understanding.

"Tali!" John rolled his eyes and pointed to his ear, "Turn off the music."

"_Keelah_, John, sorry!" she said, surprised at her own carelessness, "What did you say?"

He waved a hand at the two Quarians in the roadway, careful not to point, "They said something in Khelish. Didn't translate. Now they're all edgy about something."

"Oh! Must have been giving us the challenge. They need the password," She collapsed her weapon and keyed her omni-tool before yelling to the duo, "_Khal'isah varesh dhal shax'in_!"

The guards lowered their weapons and assumed more relaxed stances. One waved the group onward.

Tali waved third squad onward and turned to John, "_Da'harat jahale'i mer tal bi'esha_?"

Smiling, John pointed to his ear again, "Tali, you can stop hacking our translators."

She nodded and adjusted some controls on her omni-tool before asking again, "That wasn't so difficult, was it?"

...

Five more mechs collapsed into piles of useless scrap. Not much could stand up to the combined fire of a dozen and a half of the finest troops the Fleet, Alliance, and a certain rogue Human organization had to offer. Normally, half the squad would maintain constant suppressive fire on any targets while the other half would maneuver to the side, flanking them and assaulting through. Since entering the city, that had yet to happen even once.

Mechs didn't understand the concept of laying in wait, apparently. Most of the machines that the group encountered were either standing around or balled up in stand-by mode, easy pickings for the well-aimed cone of death that extended from the squad. Before John could have signaled his team to flank, there would be nothing left larger than ration pack. The whole operation had turned into little more than a turkey shoot. Judging by the way Jane casually examined her nails while patrolling the town, she felt the same way.

"You have very pretty hair," John heard a modulated female voice say, "It reminds me of my mom's."

Apparently, the Farseekers were just as bored as the Humans. Glancing behind him, John saw that the comment was not directed at him and his closely shaved head, but rather at Miranda. He didn't realized how relieved he was until he took a second to consider the implications.

"Um, thank you, dear," Miranda sported an amused half-smile and her expression betrayed a hint of uncertainty, "How so?"

This development was entirely unexpected. The Cerberus operative hadn't thought Quarians had any hair at all, let alone Human-like hair. While she didn't _hate_ aliens, really, neither did she relish the idea of chatting one up in hostile operational environment. Then again, the prospect of learning anything about the mysterious Quarian appearance went a long way to quelling any hesitation on her part.

"Well, same color, same length... Looks like the same texture. May I?" The Quarian held out a three-fingered hand tentatively.

"Of course darling," Miranda offered a genuine smile, tinged with a bit of superiority. She couldn't help but feel a bit smug, her beauty could transcend species.

The Quarian girl reached out and gently caressed a lock between her thumb and both fingers. The Cerberus operative felt a little moved at the look in the marine's eyes, one of longing combined with a small amount of sadness. After a few seconds, the marine retracted her hand and her sadness evaporated, replaced by curiosity.

"Yes, very much the same texture," the Quarian said, "But smoother... Not as frizzy. And more flowing. I suppose not having a suit is the reason."

"Well, I'm sure that's part of it, um...?"

"Yalne. Corporal Yalne'Naless, Migrant Fleet Marine Corps, Third Farseeker Group, Delta Company," provided the young woman, looking very pleased with her title.

"Miranda Lawson," she carefully omitted her organization, "nice to meet you. I think its more than not having a suit. I also use a special conditioner when I shampoo, and there's a leave-in conditioner I sometimes use. Some days are humid, so there's a spray that helps tone down the frizzy-ness. Oh, and split ends are a real hassle. You can trim off the last couple of centimeters every so often to avoid that..."

The Quarian listened with rapt attention as the Human went on and on about hair-care and other general beauty tips. The two chatted absentmindedly as they hiked on and conducted searches, topics ranging from skin and nail care to the pros and cons of different hair removal techniques in sensitive areas. When the marine, used to operating for months at a time in barren and unfriendly environments, asked the operative, whose missions never lasted more than a day at most, about Human feminine hygiene practices in the field, Miranda had to call an end to the conversation. Learning that Quarian women had a thirty-six day cycle was quite enough for one report.

The conversation died not a moment too soon, as all hell had finally chosen to break loose a minute later.

The distinct crack of hyper-velocity rounds echoed throughout the colony not more than a few blocks from their current position. Explosions and heavy, reverberating footfalls punctuated the commotion. Tali called their extended wedge formation to a halt, demanding with hand signs that they should all 'get down' and 'shut up.'

"Who the hell is shooting?" the lieutenant asked of her communications operator, "Don't ask Prazza; get a hold of one of the other squad leaders."

After a few seconds, Marat returned with an answer. "Ma'am, first squad leader reports that he and Gali were ordered into the town by Prazza. Apparently the FO spotted Veetor running into a building. Said he had a suit rupture, so Prazza didn't want to wait."

"What the _Fre'eg_... I'm not even surprised," Tali shook her head from where she knelt next to her _ra'estah_, "Let's get over there as quickly as possible. I'll deal with him after everything else is said and done."

Third squad made it to the firefight just as it last shots rang off the surrounding buildings, a heavy auto-cannon by the sound of it. While Miranda and Jacob still sprinted toward the scene from several dozen meters away, the twins' cybernetics afforded them little trouble in keeping up with the quick pace of the Farseekers. John slid to a halt next to Tali, taking cover beside a shipping crate, while Jane stood in the open appraising the situation. Neither liked what they saw.

The squads lay in pieces before the group. If any remained alive, they must have made their escape already. Dark red blood pooled in the street or splattered on walls where it left glistening runnels leading to the ground. The pristine snow provided a contrast with the red blood, like fresh ink spilled on clean white sheets. Steam still poured off the corpses and body fluids into the frigid air, to say nothing of the heat rising from recently fired weapons and thermal magazines.

There wasn't much left of the bodies to recognize them as Quarian. The most intact one, apparently left otherwise unharmed, lay beneath the heavily armored foot of a YMIR mech. An instant later and its auto-cannon leveled on the already dead girl's head, leaving DNA records as the only hope of ever identifying her. Miranda had a few more items to add to her report, though she hated herself for thinking about it. Based on the mottled chunks of flesh lying about, their skin tones ranged from a pale almost-white to light-blue to a striking lavender and everywhere in between. Who knew if that color changed when they hadn't been bled out.

In unison, the entire squad flooded the mech enough firepower to still a rampaging tank. Adrenaline rushed through John's veins and the same strange feeling from before overcame him. He emptied his grenade launcher into the Juggernaut then extended his disruptor loaded assault rifle. Jane stunned it with as many shockwaves as she could produce, knowing better than to charge the thing. The Quarians, unaccustomed to fighting along side biotic individuals, wouldn't know to shift their fire at the last possible instant. She ran the risk of being cut to ribbons by friendly fire once she closed with it, not to mention that she doubted even she could equal the damage of so much conventional firepower.

The YMIR, beaten into submission by repeated volleys from the squad, could hardly turn its torso to locate its newest threats. Eventually it started tracking on its targets, raining high-explosive destruction on anything that moved. Anyone in the general area of the impact zone huddled behind whatever cover was available or dove for any protection they could find. One marine dragged a screaming comrade behind cover with him, her leg blown off, splintered bone exposed to the air.

By the time it managed to traverse its guns a few degrees toward Jane, judged to be its highest priority, Chiktikka entered the fray. The little drone obscured the behemoth's visual sensors while discharging thousands of volts through its head. At that range, the machine could only howl impotently as it tried to swing its guns at the much faster synthetic.

The distraction worked well enough to rally the bulk of the squad out from behind cover, another few seconds of concentrated fire felling the YMIR. Seeing the mech cease its offensive and begin convulsing, Jane's biotics flared as she prepared to deliver the _c__oup de grâce_.

Just as she charged, a strong Quarian hand grabbed her collar and yanked her down. The former Spectre's legs continued while her upper body halted, aiding in bringing her to the ground with a heavy thud.

"Wha?! Tali, what are you..." Jane looked to her ex-engineer, currently dragging her behind cover, then back to the mech as it collapsed to the road. Jane's tone was flat, "That thing's gonna-"

Propelled faster than the speed of sound, large hunks of scrap and debris hit their cover or flew over the women to imbed in the walls behind them. The explosion was deafening, thankfully muted by the helmets of everyone who wore them. Jane chuckled at how many audiologists Cerberus must employ.

"-blow, isn't it?" Jane finished her sentence.

"Mmm-Hmm," Tali smirked as she looked down at the over-enthusiastic Human, "That's two you owe me, Big Sis."

"Well, uh, I think we're even... Little Sis. You still owed me a couple from before." Jane was taken aback by the title at first, but having said it herself, it felt right. Not only did it roll off the tongue, but truth be told she had always wanted a little sister and Tali had always been like one. She might as well get used to it; between the ring and their display in the shuttle, it would be official soon enough anyway. While two years and a funeral would present a serious obstacle to even the healthiest relationship, Jane felt very glad to be wrong about her 'Soldier groupie' comment.

She could only hope Garrus had been as faithful to her as Tali had been to John. Failing that, she'd have words with the big blue arse and steal him away from whatever filthy varren had worked her claws into him. The good part was that, unlike John, Jane held no qualms about killing the competition. _Jesus would be so pissed_, she reminded herself,_ I owe him a lot for saving me and Johnny. Then again, it doesn't say 'Thou shall not permanently maim...'  
_

...

The Humans and the lieutenant, along with her _ra'estah_, had moved onto the building holding their wayward pilgrim, leaving Dalra and third squad set about casualty collection. The process was grisly, but necessary. Never mind sorting all the body parts, tending to the wounded, and locating any possible survivors of the first two squads. There would be days worth of paperwork, roughly two dozen letters to parents and family, and quite a bit of negative fallout from this. She would have hated to be in the lieutenant's shoes. The emotional toll would be severe, to say the least.

Thirty minutes later and the group had sorted and bagged most of the parts to the best of their abilities. Additional body bags had been needed from their shuttle, sent for before they even started. Final sorting and any hope of identifying the organic wreckage would have to wait for DNA analysis, but the sergeant felt satisfied with the results. Twenty-four bodies accounted for first and second squads, another two were probably the forward observer and his spotter, and the final pair were definitely platoon medic and Prazza, identifiable by the white medic's insignia and the look of self satisfaction that even death couldn't erase, respectively.

Dalra thanked the ancestors that her squad had fared far better than the other two. If only that damned fool Prazza had not been so impatient, if he had listened to the platoon leader or at least reconned the area first, he might not be leaving the planet like a tube of nutrient paste. She would weep for the rest of the platoon, but not their platoon sergeant. It wasn't that she wanted the man dead, far from it, but she couldn't bring herself to feel particularly bad about the departed womanizer. He was always like '_I think I'm bonding with you,_' and '_Shouldn't we explore the path together?_' Yeah, her and every other woman in the platoon. If he was still alive, she'd probably have needed her Human boyfriend to kick his ass at some point. Even the lieutenant hadn't been immune to his attention for the first five seconds after they met. _That_ was in interesting story.

Among her ranks, she counted three wounded, one seriously. That girl's _nehya_ managed to pull her to safety after she got hit. He applied a tourniquet, sterilized her stump, and pumped her full of synthetic blood laced with antibiotics, but it was still touch-and-go. The poor corporal might walk again one day, after they get her on a cybernetic waitlist, but she'd never be a Farseeker again.

...

"Monsters coming back. Mechs will protect. Safe from swarms. Have to hide, no monsters, no swarms, no, no, no, no, no..."

John and Tali heard the Quarian as they entered the room, dimly lit with red lights.

"His suit's been damaged and he sounds traumatized," John murmured to his _inszel_, "but if he's the one that set the mechs loose, then what did this to him?"

"I don't know John," she snaked an arm around the Human's waist and held him to her before addressing the Quarian, "Veetor"?

He kept typing, seated before a bank of computer terminals, lost in his own world, "No Veetor, not here, swarms can't find, monsters coming. Have to hide."

John shook his head, but Tali persevered, "No body's gonna hurt you any more, Veetor. Come back to us."

"I don't think he can here you, lieutenant," Jacob voiced his concern in hushed tones.

"Have to hide, have to hide. Mechs will protect, swarms coming, storm coming..."

While the pilgrim kept rambling, John and Tali exchanged looks. With a nod from the Quarian, John brought up his omni-tool and waved the glowing orange device at the displays. Gone were the security images, replaying over and over again, replacing them were simple glowing exclamation points inside triangles. The pilgrim turned in his chair and regarded the group.

"Fleet sister! Humans? Where did you hide? How come they didn't find you?"

"Who didn't find us?" asked Miranda.

"The... The monsters, the swarms, they took everyone," supplied Veetor, shocked that they just couldn't understand.

"Some enemy force, large enough to abduct every Human here," John said mostly to himself, "it doesn't sound like Reapers... They would have just put dragon's teeth everywhere. What monsters Veetor, what swarms? Can you show us?" John pointed to the screens behind the pilgrim.

Veetor nodded his head, "You don't know, you didn't see, but I see everything." He activated his omni-tool, and with it the displays.

"What the hell are they?" asked Jane, dumbfounded at what she saw unfolding before her.

"Collectors," supplied Miranda, "Few people ever see them in person. Looks like they're using swarms of machines to paralyze all the colonists at once."

"Seeker swarms find you, freeze you, then monsters come..." Veetor confirmed, "They'll be back for me, no one escapes."

"Don't worry kid, we'll get you out of her," Jane offered a warm smile as she spoke to the distressed young man, "Did you happen to save any of this to your omni-tool?"

"Yes! Got thermal readings, gravimetric data, scans of all kinds, and footage of abductions. Even a blood sample from one of the colonists after he was... frozen."

"That's great Veetor," Jane praised the pilgrim, "maybe you could-"

"We need to get this data to the- our boss," Miranda interrupted, "Grab the Quarian and call the shuttle to come pick us up"

As one, the operative's suggestion was shot down with a 'no,' a 'hell no,' and a 'go fuck yourself' from the twins and Tali. She couldn't be sure who said what, but she had a pretty good idea. Jacob was smart enough to remain silent.

All eyes turned from Miranda to John as he spoke, "Veetor goes back to the Fleet for medical attention. He can give us the data from his omni-tool." Everyone in the room knew that John's word was final. There would be no argument from the operatives.

"Thank you John, Big Sister," Tali glanced briefly at the minders, "I'm glad you're still the ones giving the orders."

...

John knew this talk was coming, but it didn't mean he was any less worried. Tali had pulled him into the privacy of one of the abandoned dwellings while the rest of the group loaded the dead into Quarians' shuttle. They had a few minutes to themselves while the squad worked,

The empty room, though lager than any cabin John had ever been assigned, was nonetheless stifling. Pictures of missing men, women, and children hung on the walls. Dinner lay uneaten. Fresh flowers stood placidly in a vase on a coffee table across from where the ex-Spectre sat. And his girlfriend, his would-be fiancé, was about to tell him it was over.

Returning from the bathroom, Tali took a seat next to John and nudged her hips into his. She stroked his back, attempting to ease the tension she felt in her _inszel_.

"So, you know what this is about..." she began.

"Yeah, I can tell," John sighed. He tried not to think too much about it.

"Good, good. You always could read me so well," she smiled.

"Sure," he pulled her hand from off his back and placed it on her thigh. Leaning away from her, he faced the now confounded woman, "He must be a lucky guy."

"Who?" Tali shook her head. Her translator couldn't have screwed up this bad...

"You said 'we need to talk.' We all know what that means."

"Yes. We do. It means, _we need to talk_," she was really confused now. She didn't like being pushed away like this, not being allowed to touch her lover whenever she wanted. Scared, she reached for John's hands, intent on playing with his fingers to ease her stress as she'd always done.

John pulled back from the reach. Tali looked frantic, watery eyes scanning his face, "What the _der'vak_ is going on, John?! Why are you acting this way?"

John looked apologetic. "I'm sorry Tali. Different cultures. I guess we handle _this_ differently," he relented and put his hands in hers. As she furiously rubbed his fingers, she moved as close to him as she could get on the couch. Deciding that wasn't enough, she placed a thigh over one of his and locked his leg between hers.

John gave a bitter chuckle before continuing, "I... I know it's been two years, so I understand that you've found someone else. I just don't want this to be awkward-"

"What? Are you calling me a whore?" now Tali knew her translator had to be broken.

"No, no! I... I'm not suggesting that you see us both. If you've made a decision, I'll respect that. But I think I've got a lot to offer you..." John proceeded to list the reasons she should pick him over his non-existent replacement, all the wonderful things he could do for her, and how much she meant to him.

At first the former engineer was confused, but understanding quickly dawned on her. She felt upset before remembering that even another Quarian might not have realized the extent of her bond prior to John's death and that too abated. It was then she had wanted to stop him and explain the misunderstanding, but she couldn't bring herself to do that. It occurred to her that when a girl had the most desired man in the galaxy sitting next to her, expounding on all benefits of a relationship with him like a desperate used ship salesman trying to make his quota with an uninterested buyer, she couldn't simply interrupt him. By the time John finished almost begging her to take him as a bondmate, Tali thought her head must be so big it could barely fit behind her faceplate.

"John. That's so sweet," she ran a hand through his short hair, "Of course I choose you."

"Oh, wow, I'm so glad to hear that," he placed a hand over his chest, "I... I don't know what I would have done..."

"John? You're such a _usl'sa yze tabb_. It means you've clearly been brain damaged since birth." She nodded in mock resignation, moving her hand lower and rubbing the back of his neck. The Human's expression grew stern while she smiled, "There was no one else. There never will be anyone else. We needed to talk about our engagement, and what to do between now and the end of my next mission."

"Oh, uh, sorry. Translation issues. 'We need to talk' is a Human idiom, used by females to tell males they want to end a relationship. I would have bet anything that it transcended the species barrier."

"It does not. I will teach you the Khelish phrase for when a Quarian female wants to break up with a mate. Ready? Listen carefully, '_I want to break up with you_.'" John brought his face to his palm and groaned. Tali smirked, "I know, I know it's difficult, but with some practice, you'll get it."

"Right, the engagement. What did you want to know? I meant it," the Human said earnestly.

"I'm glad, very glad. I didn't think the ring was just some trinket you left me, but hearing that... Makes me... So, so happy," tears of joy welled in the young woman's eyes, "Honestly, I had already accepted that we were bonded, married as you call it... I just didn't think we'd be able to complete the bond in this life. I almost wanted to... to make that happen. My mother would be there to see it... But I never gave up hope. I don't know why, but I never stopped hoping."

She crawled into John's lap, wrapping her arms and legs around him as she faced her former commander. She pressed her chest into his, grinding her hips into his as she sobbed. Tali made a few sniffling noises before she continued, "That's... That's all I wanted to know about that. We can discuss any ceremonies later. There will be time. The other thing is my next mission."

The intimate contact, the privacy that the room provided, the confirmation that John had indeed wanted to bond with her, it all outweighed the death and destruction just outside the walls of the room. Very rarely had she ever been so happy that she cried, ironic that it showed the complete opposite of the emotion she wished to convey. She hoped it wasn't a turn-off.

"What about it," John whispered softly into her audio pick-ups, "I thought your next mission would be with us."

Hearing his soft, sweet words in her ear, she had difficulty controlling herself, difficulty hiding her arousal. She could easily tell that John was having the same issue.

"No, John. As much as I want to go with you," She breathed heavily, John trying desperately to inhale, to smell, the air she exhaled, "and Ancestors know I want to more than anything, I still have a duty to the Fleet. I can't... It's enough to know... Enough to keep me going, huh, really hot in here... Knowing that I have you back. But maybe there's a compromise?"

"A compromise is better than nothing. Uh, Oh, just like that... What did you have in mind?" John moved his hands from where he held her shoulders, one cradling a breast while the other reaching to grasp her behind. He guided her rocking hips harder and deeper into groin, enjoying her warmth and pressure on his erection. Leaning into her moans, a low growl reverberating through her chest and he took as much of a firm bosom into his mouth as he could fit.

Tali grabbed his head in both hands, forcing even more of her suited chest between his lips. She angled her Human lover's head ever so slightly, enough to bring his aimlessly wandering tongue into contact with the part of the suit covering her nipple. She could hardly stand it now; it had been a long time. "Huhh, uhhhh... Mmmm, comprimise... Come with me... Uhhnn... on mission..."

Gasping, John pulled away with a wet popping noise, "What kind of mission did-"

Tali let out a short guttural howl through clenched teeth, a cross between an angry cat and tearing metal. She roughly yanked her Human's head back onto her breasts, on the other nipple this time. With one hand she cupped the back of his head, holding him tightly in place while she used the other to gently stroke his chin, trying to sooth him in light of her forceful treatment. John complied, obediently sucking and licking her suit over its delicate, imprisoned prize. He brought a hand down from her chest to between her thighs, tenderly rubbing her heated core. Tali praised his efforts with a series of high pitched squeals.

John struggled for air, having to pull away every few seconds, just enough to bring his nose from the soft textured material. Each time he did, Tali pulled him harder onto her. Right when he began to consider calling it quits at least long enough to catch a decent breath, his lover let out an ear-splitting cry, her thighs tensing hard around his waist. They locked onto him with force enough to completely paralyze his diaphragm, leaving him certain he'd have broken his lower ribs were he not augmented by Cerberus. The scream lasted for five solid seconds before devolving into a low moan. Hearing loss be damned, ear-plugs might have helped but he would never, ever, trade that sound for anything in the world.

Carefully, like a woman who just ran a marathon, Tali collapsed against her Human. She rested her facemask on his shoulder, the power of her orgasm leaving her barely enough strength to lift her head.

"That... Was... Good..." she murmured into the Human's ear.

"Definitely. Ready to, uh, finish? My turn?" John asked with a hopeful grin.

"I... John, I'm sorry... I'm spent," the Quarian sounded genuinely apologetic.

"Oh," the throbbing tension in John's pants only grew. Left unsatisfied, he tried to will away his feelings. It didn't help that there was a gorgeous woman on his lap. He retracted his hands from her sensitive areas, taking one last moment to draw his fingers up from her groin and across her lean stomach. "That was only fifteen seconds. I thought maybe you could keep going. Multiple times..."

"Normally, yes, but... after that... and I haven't come in two years..." she said softly, hoping he understood.

"It's okay," he kissed the top of her faceplate, "I love you. Maybe next time."

"I'm so sorry. I love you too," _At least there will be a next time_, she thought. Still disappointed with her performance, she clasped both his hands with hers, "I promise I'll get you off first next time. _Keelah_, John, I didn't even have my nerve-stim going. I don't think you understand how much I needed this."

It would be a while before Tali could work her way up to any nerve-stim use at all, let alone turning it up to a higher setting. After that, she'd need skin-on-skin contact. Just the thought of her ultimate sexual goal brought a mix of intense desire, anxiety, anticipation, and a whole host of other emotions to the surface. Figuring that she could reliably get some from John at least twice a day, with a little encouragement, that gave her a few weeks to get together what she needed to do him for real.

John could sympathize. It had only been two days from his perspective. Two years was a long time to go without any form of intimate self-gratification, something Tali did quite frequently aboard the _Normandy_. His disappearance must have hit her pretty hard to commit her to a life of chastity like that.

"No worries, I know what this must mean to you. So," began John as he tried to think about anything except what was still pressing down from atop him, "You want me to come on your mission to...?"

"Haestrom," she supplied, "Old Quarian colony. Deep in Geth space. We're studying the sun there. It's classified, so I can't tell you any of this, but if you happen to show up in orbit," she checked her omni-tool, "in four days, seven hours, thirty-two minutes, and... fifteen seconds from now, we could start the mission together. Technically, the world in unclaimed by the Fleet, so they will have nothing to say about it."

John punched the time into his omni-tool and began a countdown timer, "Won't they get suspicious if we just happen to pop in for a visit?"

"Yeah. Fuck 'em," she used the Human expression with a smile, "That's my last pending mission before transitioning back to garrison duty. I'll request a temporary transfer for foreign service training. That's not unheard of in the Alliance, or whoever you're working for now, is it?"

"No, it's definitely not unheard of," replied John, thinking back to Talis Fia, "About who we work for..."

"Go on," urged Tali. She didn't care too much at this point who it was. The next word out of the man's mouth could be 'Reapers' followed by 'I'm the next Saren Arterius' and all that would mean was that the Saren was right and the rest of the galaxy was wrong. Still, she thought it was cute the way he struggled for words that wouldn't offend her.

"I... Well, Jane and I don't work for them, but they do pay the bills. We do our own thing, you know? We're in charge but they support us," John sighed and began rubbing his brow, a task made more difficult by Tali's proximity, "You know, I should get Jane. We should explain together."

John pulled up his omni-tool and sent his sister a text message. A few seconds later Jane barged in without so much as a knock.

"Got your message bro; we're almost ready to get off..." she paused, mouth agape and at a loss for words at what she saw. It lasted less than a second, "but it looks like you two've already done that."

"Sis, please," John chided the woman while Tali hugged him a little tighter.

Jane smirked to herself, "Seriously though, calling me up like this, I'm flattered you guys. Tali, if I'd known you went for girls, we'd have done this a lot sooner," Jane began unclasping her armor, "And thanks for sharing Nee, keep it in the family and all that. You'll want to wait outside, I'll call you when we're done."

While Tali couldn't stop laughing at her captain's antics, John took her a bit more seriously. "Jane, you're disgusting. You're already starting to corrupt the poor girl. I will not have you worming your way into another of my girlfriend's panties. I mean it this time," he said, shaking a finger at her.

Tali fell off John in surprise, landing on the couch underneath him. She turned to see his sister, _her_ sister now, already half undressed. She really hoped they were just joking around at her expense, but one could never tell with those two.

"Fine, fine," relented Jane as she resealed her chest-plate, "It's better this way anyway. I kinda wanted my first time after two years to be with Garrus-"

"Garrus!" yelped Tali, "You need to get to Omega, _now!_"

"What? Why?" the twins said, almost in unison.

"He's in trouble, won't survive much longer. I've been in contact with him. He sent a message before we started the mission here, saying that things weren't good and I could collect his body when it was all over. Please, just go and help him, we can finish this later. I don't know how much time he has left...," Tali pleaded.

"Shit! Nee, we have to get there now," Jane grabbed her brother by the arm and started to make for the door. John resisted, pulling away from his sister before embracing his _inszel_.

"Tali, I'll see you at Haestrom," he kissed her on the visor, just above her vocalizer, "Four and a half days, that's it. We do your mission together, start to finish, then we're back together for good."

She held him tightly, giving him a sudden squeeze, "I know John, I know. I managed for two years without you, thinking I'd never see you again. I think I can handle four days knowing you're out there, waiting for me, loving me."

"Always," he kissed her again before pulling away.

"Write me!" she yelled as the twins made for the door.

"Of course," he replied, fastening on his helmet.

"Twice a day!" she called after him as he crossed through the threshold.

"As you wish!" she barely heard him shout as the twins ran for the shuttle.

Jane issued a low groan at her brother's affection. Silently, she had counted off how many trigger-pulls one could make in the time it took her brother and soon-to-be sister in-law to exchange goodbyes. If someone had been shooting at Garrus, by now he'd look worse Johnny and herself after Alchera.

The room empty now, Tali balled herself up on the couch and grumbled, already feeling the pangs of depression brought on by the absence of her mate. It was acute, but small, and easily pushed aside knowing that John's absence would be only temporary. It wasn't like the constant debilitating ache that she was used to, so much so that it almost felt refreshing. Finally, she experienced the normal sort of longing that all couples felt at one point or another. She would take another few moments to herself while her suit's moisture collectors did their job before she rejoined the remainder of her platoon.

**So, what did you think of Freedom's Progress? Please let me know.**

**Review whenever and wherever you can. I'm having some issues with the glossary/primer. I'm not entirely sure where to place it so it doesn't intimidate new readers in the first chapter, and doesn't screw with your ability to review the last chapter. Suggestions?**

**P.S. If you can't review this chapter because you've already reviewed 'chapter 12' please feel free to go back a few previous chapters and review there. Don't review the information page :)  
**


	4. Omerta

**Bioware owns the characters and everything else you can find in the Mass Effect Wiki. Calinstel owns 99.5% of the ideas behind the Quarians that I'm using. The rest is mine. **

**Thank you, VenomRED for your inspiration and your kind words. To my readers, see if you can spot the nod to his ME universe is this chapter.**

**One note. Homeworlds #3 has Garrus sniping from his position with his helmet off. In game, his helmet is on when Shepard reaches him. I have attempted to resolve this discontinuity.**

**The information/glossary page has been made into its own story, check my profile to find it.  
**

Chapter 13: Omerta

"Jane, what on Earth do you mean we're heading to Omega?" Miranda asked the woman seated across her and to the right.

Jane remained silent, arms folded, head turned to stare out the front view-port of the shuttle.

The operative tried John this time, "What does she mean we're heading to Omega?"

"I think it means we're heading to Omega," John replied simply.

"Really? Really, John?" She threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes, "Thank you for clearing that up for me. I had _no_ idea, no idea at all that's what it meant. I'm going to write that in my diary right now," she nodded to herself while pretending to type on her omni-tool, "Today we traveled to Omega because Fuck-All, that's why."

"We are going to rescue an old ground team member, recruit him if we can," said John, feeling a little guilty for his crack at her expense.

She replied, this time sounding like an overly kind elementary school teacher, "I understand, I do, but the Illusive Man wants to speak with you, and I think your new ship is ready."

"He's in trouble. We don't have the time to run off to your base for a ship when we've got a perfectly good one in orbit," John gestured to ship slowly occluding the forward view of the shuttle, "and we don't need some fancy quantum whatsits to tell us what to do; he knows my extranet address. Have him send me a text message," John finished with a shrug.

"Fine," the operative folded her arms, resigned, "I'll try to run interference for you, but he won't be happy. That ship isn't for our exclusive use. It has a schedule to keep, and Jane commandeering it isn't part of that."

"We'll take whatever heat comes our way. I don't think he'd have wasted so much time and energy on bringing us back to life just to kill us."

"Of course, John."

He closed his eyes and tried to enjoy what little down time being in the shuttle afforded. He tried to keep his thoughts away from the mission at hand, away from the collectors and reapers, away from Garrus, and hardest of all, away from Tali. He just wanted a moment of peace and quiet all to himself, but no matter how hard he tried, it wasn't to be. Ideas for what approaches to use while pressing for information, where he could find current maps of the Omega station, documents about its power structure, where the collectors might strike next, and most importantly, what he would do when he saw Tali again, all joined forces to kill any chance of a nap he had.

Just as he was about to compose a letter to the woman he just left, Miranda interrupted. "This wouldn't be about Garrus, would it?"

"How did you know?" John slowly turned to her, "Did you know where he was this whole time...?"

"Absolutely not. But it doesn't take a genius to figure it out," she smiled, happy with the opportunity to demonstrate her intelligence yet again, "Liara is on Illium, we all know that, the same goes for Wrex and Tuchanka. You just left Tali, so that leaves Ashley and Garrus. I doubt the Alliance would invade Omega; there isn't any eezo left on that rock."

John nodded, "You know how much this means to Jane then."

"Yes, especially if he's in any kind of danger," Miranda sighed in the face of the inevitable, "I'll tell the ship's captain we've got an unplanned course change. Save Jane the trouble of killing the crew and piloting it herself."

...

_To: J̷̷̜̖̮̮̘͓͚̼͇̱̳̱͕̹̝ͬ̈́̒ͪ͌͆͑̃̾͛ͯ̿ͣ̏̊ͫ͘͘a̖͚̜̦͔̩̞̓͑̈̈́͛̓́͐̄́̉̐ͥ́̂ͯͩͮ́͡͡ç̵͋ͣ͗̓̽̉͒ͫ͑̆̉ͦͩ̔̐ͪ͢҉̢͙̜̫ͅk̎̏͂ͯ͏̲̭͈ ̸̷̸͎̗̞̯̝͕̰̫̖ͪ́̃̆̂ͭͮͫ̂ͪ́ͣ͗̊ͨ̕͡Ĥ̶̢̪̬͕̮͓͉̘͇͓̺̤͕̫̞̼̬͎̔ͧͭͬͦ͒ͫ̈ͬ̈́͊͋ͥ͝ȃ̛̻̞̪̣̟̟̬̪̿͒͂̔ͮ̏̏͒̌ͭ̑̓ͣͧ͞r̈ͦ̾ͨ͐̍̑͊͑̈́̑̈́̈́̚̚͏́͏̳͖͔̝p͂͆̒ͭ̏̓ͬ̍͌ͨ̈̏̈́ͮͩ̎̿͞҉̳͖̰̱e̶̷̢͎͚̬͈̜͖̰͈̰̥̗͈̻͇̼̹͉ͮ̒͛̈́́̐ͯ̿ͯͩ̉̍̈́̅̚͟͞r̔̑ͪ͌̑̊͢͞҉͍͍͔͍̟̦͕̙̠̮̳͈̗̯͚͉̜̮̝_

_Subject: Mission Started Early_

_Sir,_

_The Shepard twins have elected to begin the team building phase of the mission early, rather than waiting until we rendezvous at station 317 with the new _Normandy_ and her crew. _

_They seek to reunite with one of their old team, Garrus the Turian, currently located at the space station Omega. They wish to recruit him into our efforts and believe strongly that he will join us._

_While I explained that we could travel to Omega after your next meeting with the twins and after they receive their new ship, they felt that the delay would further endanger Mr. Vakarian's life. John and Jane have reason to believe that he is in serious trouble. I, for one, agree that if this is the case then the benefits to us in terms of loyalty from the Shepards and the added reliable manpower provided by Mr. Vakarian far outweigh any postponement of the scheduled meeting._

_I will keep tabs on this development and report back to you as soon as possible._

_Sincerely,_

_Senior Operative Miranda Lawson_

...

The Illusive Man read the message from his operative and rolled his eyes. Miranda had done a decent job of putting a positive spin on this development and it showed. The truth of the matter was that if this was the most amount of insubordination he could expect from the twins, then all was well and good.

The irony of course was that their next stop was to be Omega anyway. He had to tread a careful line in his response, however. On the one hand, allowing this unanticipated sojourn might engender the Shepards to greater trust and cooperation in the future. On the other hand, too kindly a response might make the pair feel they could get away with whatever they wanted, especially when the time came that they did not necessarily see eye-to-eye on certain goals or the means to achieve them.

In the end, he chose finish what was left in his bottle of brandy, smoke another couple of cigarettes, and compose a carefully worded, neutral reply, giving only the details of the next three dossiers.

"Have the Normandy meet the Shepard twins on Omega," he called into the room's intercom. There really was no sense having them come all the way here to pick up something designed to travel from one side of the galaxy to another.

"Yes, Sir," replied the former Alliance pilot.

...

"Commander, Captain," began Lawson, "you're in luck. I received word from the Illusive Man that the next part of our mission is recruitment, and three of our new recruits are on Omega as we speak."

Miranda plopped the data-pad down onto the table where the twins sat chatting in the cargo hold of the transport. Together they looked to her then to each other. They both thought exactly the same thing, but John voiced it.

"That's a bit of a coincidence. Is one of them Garrus?"

"That's a possibility, but it's remote. One of them _is_ Turian, but there are quite a lot of Turians on Omega. No one knows his real name, but he's a mercenary and he goes by 'Archangel,'" at this John turned to find Jane's hardened eyes locked with his. Miranda noticed the attention the alias brought, but continued, "he and his team have been making quite a bit of trouble for the local merc units."

"Pardon us Miranda," said Jane, motioning for the operative to find something else to do.

"It's him. I know it is," she whispered to her brother, "What other Turian would be using a name like that? A Human word, something from a Human religion, out of a book that I left him?"

"Yeah, but don't get your hopes up," John said at full volume, having decided that it didn't matter if Miranda or anyone else knew what they left in their wills. "We'll ask around; see if anyone knows where to find Garrus. If that doesn't work, we'll see if we can't locate Archangel."

"You know, leading a mercenary group, taking on thugs and gangsters... That's exactly the kind of thing a disgruntled ex-C-Sec officer, fed up with the bureaucracy of the system, might do," her eyes glazed over and she smiled to herself, "Take the law into his own hands like that."

"Yeah, it's something he might do. Then again..."

"No. There is no 'then again,'" she hissed at her brother, "It's fucking him."

When the operative decided the twins had finished their completely open private discussion, she rejoined the pair. "The next recruit Doctor Mordin Solus. He runs a clinic in the slums of Omega-"

"Omega has something besides slums?" quipped Jane.

"As I was saying, he clearly isn't doing much, so getting him to come along shouldn't be too much trouble. He's an expert at biomedical research and could be the key to countering the swarms those collectors use to incapacitate their victims."

"A doctor would be a good thing to have with us if we plan to keep this up much longer," John offered with a nod.

While Professor Solus did indeed have a medical degree among others, that wasn't why he was being brought aboard. They already had a doctor for that, although Miranda was told to keep her identity a surprise.

"Right, well" continued Miranda, "the final recruit on Omega is another mercenary named Zaeed Massani. I sent him a message a few moments ago and he should be waiting for us at the docks for pick-up. In addition to the high price we're paying for his services, we will be required to assist him on a personal mission."

"I don't like the sound of that," commented John.

"I do," grunted his sister, " a little extra action might be fun. No innocents though."

"Really..." murmured the operative under her breath. She hadn't expected the Butcher of Torfan to care in the slightest whom she killed. Dozens of dead Batarian children could attest to that, were they able to communicate from the afterlife.

...

Everything John saw on Omega made him more convinced than ever that the place was a dump barely fit for Human habitation, and that amounted to only the first ten meters of the docking area. A twitchy Salarian intercepted them for a greeting and the ex-Spectre's mental scam-detectors started screaming. Fortunately for all concerned but the Salarian, a gruff Batarian intercepted the man and chased him off without much trouble.

"Blasted scavengers," the Batarian nodded to the retreating Salarian, "Welcome to omega, Shepards."

"You know who we are?" John couldn't help but sound a little dumbfounded. If only his _inszel _had been this easily convinced. Then again, it was a good bet that most people never really believed they had died in the first place.

"Of course. We had you tagged the moment you entered the terminus systems. You're not as subtle as you think," Jane rolled her eyes and started walking past the man, "Aria wants to know what brings a couple of dead Spectres to omega."

"We want to know about a Turian named Garrus. Or Archangel," the female Shepard called over her shoulder, barely willing to waste any time with the man or his boss, "Can you help with that?"

"I suggest you go to afterlife now and present yourself," responded the Batarian.

"Yeah, we might get on that. After we tear this station apart looking for our man." Jane kept walking, past a muscular middle aged man in mismatched armor, and into Omega proper. It was beyond her why anyone wasted time with greeters. They were never willing or able to provide any useful information. A holo, or better yet a simple sign, would have been both cheaper and less annoying.

"Nobody keeps Aria waiting," the Batarian practically screamed after her. He addressed John and the operatives, "Afterlife. Now."

"Got it," replied John. He signaled Jacob and Miranda to follow.

As promised, their first recruit waited for them near the entrance to the station. Zeaad Massani looked every bit the part of a hardened mercenary and acted like one too. A freshly trampled Batarian laid at the man's feet.

"Please... You have to help me," begged the fallen man to the kind-hearted ex-Spectre.

"No one said you could talk, jackass," barked the mercenary, giving the fallen man a swift kick to the chest.

"And just what did he do to deserve that beating you gave him?" asked John.

"It's none of your god damned business, now clear out," said Massani, appraising the new arrival with his good eye,

"It is if you're Zaeed Massani. The name is Shepard." John folded his arms across his chest and waited for an explanation.

"He's a bounty. Someone paid me a lot of money to bring him in," Zaeed spared a glance at the Batarian before rolling him on his stomach with a boot and pressing it into his back, "I suppose you're my new boss after this. You know about my other assignment? The other half of my payment?"

"Yes, and we'll take care of it. Do your thing, but know that needless violence won't be tolerated on my missions."

"Whatever," responded the mercenary.

After a few more questions asked between the two, John requested he have his things delivered to the cargo hold of the vessel and his prisoner delivered to his client. They would meet up in Afterlife, assuming Jane hadn't already turned the place against them, for drinks before they pick up the professor. John couldn't help thinking that she would find this violent psychopath quite charming.

...

Afterlife was a large establishment and bustled with activity. At first John thought he'd have trouble finding this Aria person or his sister. Though she might seem like the kind of person to make good on her threat to tear the place apart looking for Garrus or Archangel, she was more shrewd than she let on. If Aria might have any answers at all to give, his sister would want to hear them. It was logical, therefore, that if he found one, he'd find the other. He only hoped that she wouldn't piss anyone off in the process.

"Don't fuck with Aria!" The club grew silent and the music stopped. All eyes turned to the balcony one level above them.

"Oh damn," the male Shepard mumbled to his comrades, "here we go." John checked around the room for armed hostiles, then anyone either armed or hostile, and finally for people looking anything other than drunk or shifty. Seeing nothing to warrant he take cover or pull a gun, the ex-Spectre relaxed a little.

"Lets hurry before your sister gets us killed," said Jacob. Miranda nodded in agreement and John lead the group onward in the direction of the angry sounding woman.

They made their way past the bar patrons and the dancers, past a standing mercenary, and up a flight of stairs. There, at the top of another short flight of stairs sat Jane on a semi-circular couch next to a conservatively, if fashionably, dressed Asari. Two Batarian guards turned toward the newcomers.

The Asari spoke first, "Scan him too."

At this, one of the guards produced his Omni-tool and began holding it near John.

"What's going on here," inquired the ex-Spectre, "Is everything... alright?"

"Of course, Nee, you didn't think I'd come in here and kill everyone, did you?" Jane supplied a pleasant smile, but her knowing eyes, the tilt of her head, and tightening brow all said something completely different, "This is Aria T'Loak. She was just telling me the one rule of Omega."

"That's right," said the stern Asari, "After my guard scans you, we can get down to business. Anybody could be wearing John Shepard's face."

"So I've heard," responded the ex-Spectre as he scratched at the back of his neck.

The omni-tool beeped and the Asari began, "So what brings the two Humans so tough that death can't stop to my station? Make trouble and you're gone."

She offered John a seat to the right of his sister. A clinging hand fell on his shoulder. John's attention shot to its source, suspecting an attack. Instead, he was greeted with the bright-eyed, smiling face of a very scantily clad Asari dancer as she leveraged herself across John's lap. Well before she could begin grinding and dancing on him, let alone ask for any tips, she found herself introduced to the floor by way of a hard shove.

"He's taken, lady, and too good for you besides," commented Jane as she looked down on her, having been the one to push the dejected girl. John was glad to have presumptuous dancer off him, but he would prefer to have asked her nicely to leave.

"Sorry about my sister," he apologized, offering a hand.

"It's okay," she muttered as he helped her to her feet, "Most guys like it when I dance. The shoving doesn't come 'til later..."

The two continued to chat next to each other, which in itself raised Jane's hackles another notch. She turned to Aria, "We're looking for three people. That's all the business we have on this station. Two Turians, one named Garrus and one who calls himself 'Archangel,' and a Salarian named Mordin Solus."

Aria laid her arms wide across the top of her couch while she leaned back into the soft cushions, "The last one is easy. Professor Solus is in the quarantined section of the slums, running a clinic, trying to cure the place. The second one is even easier. Find a merc and follow him to the gunfire. The first one..."

Jane leaned in closer, trying to ignore the laughs her brother and that Asari shared about some subject or other.

"That one's a little interesting. We started tracking the C-Sec officer as soon as he booked passage on one of our transports some months ago, but he disappeared shortly after he got here. Started asking questions about Red Sand dealers. We thought he was dead, and he might be, but..."

Jane closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to calm herself, saying slowly, "But what?"

"But he disappeared right about the time we started getting reports of the Turian Archangel. My intuition, hundreds of years worth, says they're the same person. If you want to know for sure, you might ask one of the mercs. Rumor has it that they got one of Archangel's boys to break, spill all his secrets."

"Got one of his people to break? As in squeal? _Betray him?_" Jane's fists began to clench and release rhythmically. If a Human did that to her, she'd kill him outright, but Turians were all military and well trained to resist torture. There wasn't a horror movie made that would compare to what she'd do to that man... _Sorry Jesus, but you'll forgive me, right?_

"Yeah. He and his crew were making trouble for the mercs. They joined together against him, got to one of his people, then killed the rest. He's holed up on a balcony on the other side of the station, but he won't be for long. They're hiring people as fast as they can find them for a final push. Go see the recruiter down the stairs if you want an in. I won't spoil the surprise."

"I see," replied Jane calmly, trying to control the odd combination of rage and fear that threatened to consume her. Standing, she had a final question for the woman, "How do you feel about Archangel?"

"He was smart enough not to bother me or my operation. He never did anything for me, but he never broke my rule either. I could not care less whether he lives, dies, or leaves."

"Good enough," replied Jane as she began to make her exit.

"Hey," the Asari shot back, "Information isn't free, and neither is cooperation. I might ask you two for a favor down the line."

"First off," replied Jane as she turned back to the woman, "Who said you were cooperating? I never got that impression. And second, do you really feel comfortable demanding favors from two Spectres who kicked death in the ass?"

"I'm not interfering, so I'm cooperating by default. Also, I'm not demanding any favors... I said I might _as_k," she finished with a beckoning finger to her dancer.

Jane continued down the stairs towards the mercenary recruiter below, followed by the operatives. John excused himself from the innocent company of the dancer before hastening to join his sister. His sister really did need someone to defuse her before she started killing people. Thinking for a second, he spared a moment to smooth things over with their hostess. "Aria, we're glad to have you on our side, and we won't forget what you've given us here."

"I'll be seeing you around, Johnny-boy," she replied, appraising him as one might a new and expensive purchase, "count on it." The dancer turned her attention from her boss' neck, giving him a genuine smile and a wave, mouthing the word 'bye'.

...

"Are you the guy we talk to about getting some work?" Jane spoke quietly and evenly.

"No, I just open that door for you," he replied, pointing down a set of stairs, "Go in there and talk to the guy inside. He'll tell you what you need to know."

Without seeing if the man had more to say, she took the stairs two at a time until she reached the bottom. The rest of the team followed suit, subtly checking their weapons as they descended. Once they all reached the bottom, the Batarian guard gave a thumbs up and the haptic interface changed from red to green. Palming it, Jane and company stepped inside.

Just beyond the door stood another Batarian, this time working behind a terminal. He barely glanced up as Jane entered, followed by her bother and the operatives. "Well... aren't you sweet. You're in the wrong place, honey. Strippers quarters are that way."

Jane had to try very hard not to kill him on the spot, as it wouldn't do much to help find Garrus.

"Well, _honey_," she said in her sweetest voice, "we're here to sign up to take down Archangel, but if you want a private show, I guess I could swing by your place later..."

"Hmmm... That sounds nice," he held out his omni-tool to transfer his home address to the woman, "if you survive, you can stop by tonight. Does 21:00 sound good to you?"

"Sure does, _big boy_," she rubbed a hand on his shoulder while her brother tried not to notice, "So I take it this Archangel is one tough bastard, huh?"

"Yeah, he is, but you guys look like you can handle yourselves." He took a step closer to the Human.

Jane smiled and backed off a bit, "Save it for tonight. Maybe you can help me survive this... You know give me a bit of info on what's going on?"

"Sure," replied the recruiter as he began stroking the hand she left on his shoulder, "what do you want to know?"

"I heard you all got someone in his inner circle to talk, so maybe you can tell me what Archangel's really like? What did he do before this? What I'm up against?"

"You might change my mind after I tell you, but that's fine. He'd put quite a few extra holes in you anyway, and three's all I need," Jane almost moved her hand from his shoulder to his throat. Oblivious to the woman's glowing scars and eyes, seeing only her plastered smile, the mercenary continued, "His name is Garrus, as in the Garrus Vakarian who helped save the Citadel a couple years back."

Jane lowered her hand and head. Closing her eyes, she nodded and turned away from the cretin.

"I thought that might ring a bell, sweetheart. I'd tell you more, but that's all you really need to know." He tried to swagger up to her, but she halted him with a hand. "Do you still want to do this suicide mission?"

"Yeah, put my name on the list," she said without turning around or looking up.

"Alright, whatever you say. There's an aircar just outside the bar. Head right and it's at the end of the walkway. You better hurry, I think they might start the offensive soon," he punched in the names their newest freelancers supplied, "I guess I won't be seeing you tonight then, huh, Stephanie?"

"No," replied Jane over her shoulder, "You will."

...

"Hey, is this where I sign up?"

John turned to the teenager who addressed him. He was a kid, probably younger than Tali was when she started he pilgrimage. The way he carried himself told the man that he wasn't a tenth the fighter she was at that age. He looked tough on the outside, but it was all show. John would have talked some sense into the boy, showed him that there were better ways to get ahead in life than crime and killing, but not today. Not while some creepy Batarian casually joked about violating his twin sister.

"No," he responded, "Up there." John pointed to the general area of the bar.

"Don't fuck with me, old man. That guy said it was down here, and that chick," he indicated the livid red-head who had just turned from the recruiter, "said something about putting her name on a list."

"Fine, you're right, but I don't think you have the right equipment for the job. Let me see that weapon," said John, pointing to the young man's side-arm.

"Uhh-"

The ex-Spectre snatched the weapon from the boy's side before he knew what had happened. He smashed it barrel first into the wall repeatedly, the cracking and smashing sounds growing louder and louder with every blow. No fewer than a dozen times did weapon meet steel before he felt satisfied. Finally, he returned the handle, the trigger assembly, and a few stray bits of the receiver back to would-be mercenary.

"See? Not the right equipment."

...

"Johnny, I know these ground missions are kind of your thing, but can you let me take the lead on this one? Please?"

John thought for a minute, glancing down between his sister's visor and the path they ran on towards the waiting aircar. Part of being a good brother, or sister for that matter, was knowing when a big argument was coming and how to avoid it. He knew this could turn into a huge, hopefully only verbal, altercation between the pair, and so did she. Neither one wanted that, so for Jane to even have asked meant it was a big deal to her. _This does _not_ mean that she doesn't trust my leadership abilities_, he told himself, _She feels like she has to do this herself, that she has to be the one to save him_. He would have felt the same about Tali.

"I was thinking the same thing myself," he responded, "you need to be the one to do this. Nothing insane or dangerous, please. Once we find him, I'd like to continue on our mission and eventually get out of here alive."

"Stop lying, no you weren't thinking that. But thanks," she patted him on the back

"I'm not lying! I really do want your crazy ass leading-"

"Don't deny it. We're here anyway," she slowed to a halt in front of the waiting aircar and its driver. It wouldn't due to discuss any of their plans in front of unfriendly ears. The pair exchanged glances as the got inside, Jane up front and John and Jacob in the back. Miranda had to choose between sitting squished between the two males or sitting on someone's lap. Deciding Jacob looked comfy, she closed the door and the group took off.

...

Garrus could see the mercs milling about behind cover at the far side of the bridge. Even as little as a few days ago, he might have taken a few pot shots at them. Not today. He had fired enough rounds in the past two weeks to almost run his rifle's internal projectile block dry. The thermal clips were another matter. The former C-Sec officer had just enough, using half to keep pace with the siege while the other half cooled.

Through the scope he scanned the area at the far side of the bridge. It seemed that they were going to throw some more amateurs at him, living shields to occupy him for the real assault. He would have to take care of those poor bastards before he could focus on the actual threat. It was easy enough to ignore them, but novices with guns were still dangerous.

It was the inevitable final push, the culmination of where events had been leading. Garrus reflected that it couldn't go on forever; the old team had grown too large and potent to escape notice for long. Eventually the goons of Omega would have to have banded together and tried to take them out. He just expected that he'd be taking a lot more of the bastards with him was all.

They would have attacked _en masse_ regardless, the siege would have happened no matter what, they would have all died anyway... But it would have lasted a lot longer, maybe even bleeding this rock dry of all its gangs. Who could say, they might have even won. That had been before Sidonis squealed. Or broke. Either way, it didn't matter. He had betrayed everything they stood for, and now it was just the Archangel left.

Garrus had written Butler's estranged wife to express his condolences. Weaver had a sister he had managed to get a message out to. Mierin, Grundan, and Krul, all had children, some of whom were distressed at their parents' deaths, some of whom could care less. Sensat, Vortash, and Monteague had parents what would miss them, and the same was true for Melanis' aunt and uncle. Erash had made the acquaintance of an Asari dancer here on Omega and she had seemed genuinely distraught when she got Garrus' call. Surprisingly, the borderline-sociopath Ripper listed a father and three adopted daughters as his next of kin. Garrus had sent the man a message and much to his surprise, the gentleman had sent a heartfelt reply, thankful that in the end his son had sought to make the galaxy a better place.

He thought he could do what the Shepards had done. Build a team, take on the bad guys, save everyone. _What a joke. I couldn't even save one stinking Spirits-damned asteroid. I was thinking too big... Crime is universal and as old as time. Saren was just one man. _

That only left one loose end to tie up. Though he could barely see them behind all the debris, the newest batch of recruits appeared to be Humans. They were still busy getting ready so Garrus figured he had time left to place one last call. Pulling up his omni-tool, he scrolled through his contact list. Finding one he hadn't used in a very long time, he hit send.

The omni-tool chimed while waiting to connect. Noticing movement, Garrus zoomed in a little further on his newest targets. He swallowed hard as the first group of soon-to-be cadavers, a pair of Batarians and a Salarian, jumped the barrier. He sent one of the four-eyed sons of bitches to the afterlife with a squeeze and some recoil . He hoped Jane was waiting.

"_Hello?_" a deep Turian voice answered the call.

"Dad," sighed the besieged vigilante, more relieved than he wanted to admit at hearing his father's voice.

The Salarian took one to the chest and started crawling back to the safety of the cover he just left, unwilling to accept a fatal wound even when he felt it tearing through him. A follow-up shot helped the young credit-seeker finally admit defeat just as the next crowd of budding mercenaries hurdled the barrier and trampled him underfoot.

"_Garrus, is that you? What's that noise?_"

"Just a little target practice." The prodigal son sent a round to the final Batarian's right shoulder just as he approached the halfway point of the bridge. He was getting sloppy; exhaustion had made its presence felt. A second shot ripped his throat out.

"_Then call me back later._"

"I... don't think I'll be able to do that," Garrus lined up a shot on one of the four Humans who were now dashing across the bridge, "Too many targets."

The elder Turian briefly fell silent. "_I see._"

"I just wanted to hear your voice, Dad. Wanted to know how retirement was treating you," The younger Turian hit the lead Human in the shoulder, his shields flaring, "You good?"

"_I'm fine. Forget about that._"

"Listen, I don't have a lot of time," Garrus licked his mandibles, worried about these 'amateurs' and the tech they brought to bear, "I wanted to say... You were right about things. A lot more than I gave you credit for."

"And I'm sorry we butted heads so much." He tried to line up another shot but failed as the group separated and ducked behind cover along the bridge. This crop was a lot better than the last. He felt glad to have his father on the line. Something told him he wouldn't get another opportunity to make amends with the senior Vakarian.

"_I said forget about that,_" hesitation tinged with fear crept into old man's voice, "_These targets you're practicing on- they're moving fast?_"

"So far, not fast enough. But they're learning," Garrus finally had a bead on one of the raiders, a female in dark armor. He stroked the trigger gently. He always hesitated with Human women. Not yet...

"_How are your thermal clips?_"

"You know how it is. Could always use a couple more," Garrus said, resigned. With his visored eye, he could see more of the freelancers and some of the mercenaries rushing across the bridge, running past the group in hiding. Slowly he applied pressure to the trigger and waited for the kick.

"_Work with what you've got, then. You don't stop pulling that trigger until it _clicks_, son._"

Blue light blinded his scoped eye. _Biotics? Humans aren't Asari. They don't _have _any biotic amateurs._

The target vanished from his weapon's reticle in the flash. He located her a second later using his other eye just as she shoved one mercenary off the bridge. Her shotgun barked and another one's head evaporated into red chunky mist. The lithe woman ran so fast... Heads fell from bodies before their faces could register surprise and she ran onward. Torsos shown blue from the front as her fists punched through the back and still she sprinted for more. She was a bright blue gamma-ray burst from a wrathful neutron star, annihilating everything in her path, not even taking the time to make sure victims were slain before moving to the next one. One luckless Krogan let loose a harrowing war-cry as he spun to face the rampaging valkyrie. Without slowing her charge or so much as glancing at the blood-raged alien, she rammed her Claymore shotgun past its roaring mouth and down its throat, pulling the trigger. The Turian sat in awe at the entire spectacle. He had seen none anywhere fight with that kind of ferocity, except perhaps...

"_No matter how bad things are falling apart around you, as long as you have at least one bullet left, you can still get the job done. Understand?_"

She would vanish under the balcony in another second or two. The former C-Sec officer barely had time to align his scope to her again, this time purely out of curiosity over who might be his last hope in the galaxy. What he saw caused his breath to freeze in his chest. There, on the right side of her dark-armored chest plate was a small Human insignia he recognized very well. N7.

"_You finish up what you have to do there, and then come on home to Palaven. We have a lot to sort out._"

"Yeah, we do. Thanks, Dad, for everything," Garrus smiled as he spoke, taking out two Vorcha who were aiming near the Human and her cadre of supporters. "I have to go now. Don't worry about me... I'll make it home when I can. The odds just got a lot better."

Of all the people and organizations who might have come to his rescue, Garrus hadn't thought the Human Alliance might be among them. He had no idea who the two N7 troopers or their friends were, but it was probably Ashley or even Joker who had ultimately tracked him down. They could have started with his old boss on the Citadel. That might have led them to Kishpaugh, his last and final suspect while an officer for C-Sec. He was the unrepentant criminal that directed the former C-Sec to Omega, where his drug suppliers were. No doubt he would have spilled his guts to either the pilot or the zealot gunnery chief. They might have pulled some strings with the Alliance brass then, maybe called in a few favors for him.

Then again, the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that the Alliance was probably just on one of its anti-drug campaigns and Omega just happened to be the next plutocracy on its hit list. That would have led them to make contact with anyone they could use who might be both familiar with their operations and willing to work with them. The Archangel alter-ego definitely fit that bill.

If that was the case, then he'd prefer not to let even the Alliance know who he was. The less exposure, the better. He had already made a terrible mistake in letting even one person know his identity, someone he thought he could trust, and that turned out about as bad as one might expect in his situation. He could only thank the Spirits that his only friends were either dead or scattered to the four winds. Had this berserker not broken the back of the mercenaries' first assault, he might have feared repercussions against his family. After what he saw though, Garrus had little doubt that he'd make it out alive, no matter how many more waves Garm, Jaroth, or Tarak threw at them.

He placed his helmet on just as he heard plodding footfalls from the base of the stairwell. They slowed as they made their way to his second-level perch. The Human female rounded the corner right as movement caught his eye on the bridge below. He took aim at the last of the current wave.

Garrus held up a finger to halt the trooper's approach, not wanting her distracting from his shooting. For her part, she seemed grateful not to have to speak right away, taking a seat on the ground and breathing heavily. Carefully, he lined up a perfect headshot and gently depressed the trigger. As always, he felt surprise at the loud crack and the gentle recoil of the mass accelerating weapon. Below him, the miniscule bullet sent another blue armored Human to meet his departed lover in the afterlife.

Sensing a moment of respite from the advancing horde, Garrus lowered his finger and turned to face the Human, leaning back on the crates around him.

...

Garrus turned to face her. He _had_ listened to her constant nagging it seemed; he finally decided that wearing his helmet was in the best interest of not dying. Despite not being able to see his face, there was no question that she had been reunited with the most important person in her universe next to her bother. He wore the same blue armor and had the same relaxed, semi-cocky posture he always when he climbed into her bed, waiting for her to finish writing some ship's report or complete some other waste of time.

There he sat, one set of talons resting on a raised knee, the other holding his weapon like a cane, careful not to point it in any direction that he might regret. She wanted to take her helmet off and pull him to the ground, passionately kissing him. She wanted to offer herself to him, body and mind, and forget about any of the stand-offish games she always played with him about who would make the first move, but she didn't. She was afraid. Not afraid that either she or Garrus might get shot while they reconnected, Johnny and the operatives could easily handle those pathetic guns-for-hire, no, she was afraid of rejection.

To be turned away from the man who, only days ago from her perspective, shared a bed with her, the only man, save for her brother and father, whom she believed when he promised that he would never, ever, leave her, that he would _always_ be there for her, was too terrifying to contemplate. Jane Shepard, for the first time in her life, chickened out. She left her helmet on.

While the rest of the team made their way up the stairs, she typed fast into her omni-tool, '_Don't let Garrus know who we are. We don't want a repeat of Tali,' _she lied.

_'Are you sure, sis? I'm not a fan of the deception and I'd kind of like to let him know it's me.' _

_'Yeah. He might not be as emotional as she was, but he'll still kill us if he thinks we're imposters. The man has spent days, maybe weeks, under constant threat. Paranoia's a bitch. We'll tell him over some drinks or something, once this threat is gone.'_

Pausing, she noticed 'Archangel' taking off his helmet. Sure enough, it was the most beautiful face she had seen since waking on that cold slab. She sighed heavily and lowered her eyes from his. _This is for the best._

Behind her, she heard John, Miranda, and Jacob approach slowly. She checked to make sure the tape remained affixed over their logos. Satisfied, she stood to address the Turian, making an effort to change her voice. She shifted her accent, Manchester English with lingering hints of mid-Atlantic American, to what she hoped was a very credible impersonation of an Aussie one.

...

"Crikey! Ain' you a fugly bogan, mate!"

The two male Humans stifled laughter, the one without a helmet looking down while biting a lip. The female Human not currently addressing Garrus showed no hint of amusement at the display. She put on her best scowl and carefully moved a four inch heel over the dark-skinned soldier's toes before pressing down with all her weight, only causing him to laugh harder.

Garrus looked as confused as he felt, but accepted the greeting as genuine, "I... Uh, thank you? I mean thank you for saving me. I don't think I would have made it without you... But I have no idea what you just said."

"Right, well, that shiela," the female N7 trooper pointed to the other female, "and I are from bloody deep in the bush-"

"Thank you, that will be enough of that," interrupted the other woman with a tight smile and pushed her way from behind the first speaker, "She's a great fighter, but a bit slow in the head."

The armored woman leaned against a wall and remained silent. Her hip stuck out to one side, and her arms folded across her chest. Garrus stared blankly at her, at how Spirits damned familiar she was. Oddly, he felt like she stared right back to him, though he couldn't see her eyes...

"You can call me Miranda," the articulate female interrupted his stupor, "We're here to hire you on for a job. An alien race called the Collectors is abducting entire Human colonies. We think they're working for the Reapers. Knowing your past experience on the subject, we think you'll make a valuable addition to the team."

"Well, I'll go with you if you can get me out of this mess, maybe run a few missions with you... see where it takes me," he looked down through his scope again, "It seems like they're ready for the next round. Why don't one of you spot for me up here, while the rest of you get down there and see what you can do."

"I'll stay here," offered the armored woman.

Garrus wasn't too sure of her ability to spot targets and call shots, given that she had probably taken one too many rounds to the head, but if things got close, he couldn't think of a better person to have watching his back. Well, no one living, anyway.

"Alright," he continued, "the rest of you get down there and mop them up. There are some emergency doors we can seal to keep them out. I'll keep in comms to guide you."

...

The reenforced blast doors closed and the fighting done, John returned to Garrus' sniper position to find one very dead Krogan and a glum looking sister. She sat on one of the couches with her feet propped up on the Battlemaster's corpse, staring longingly at the preoccupied Turian. At hearing their approach, the object of Jane's affections smiled and got up to greet them.

"This lady's as tough as a thresher maw," the Turian pointed a talon at Jane, "took Garm head-on, threw a flurry of punches right to his face, didn't even faze her when she took shotgun blast to the chest. Just kept on hitting him with biotic punches until his head wasn't there anymore. Doesn't say much though."

John winced when he saw the weapon Garm had carried. He thanked whatever deities he could that his sister had shields, and that they had held. Jane's gaze never left the former C-Sec officer as she leaned on her elbow, chin in hand. He had only seen her like this once before, and that was in the hospital room next to Dad's bed. There was more going on here than not wanting to shock Garrus with the revelation that they lived. She was trying to come to terms with something bad and, from her perspective, unavoidable.

"Jane," John said aloud, and slowly every head in the room turned his way with varying degrees of shock, "I think it's time we-" The whine of turbines and the roar of engines cut him short. "Sis, I thought you sabotaged that gunship!"

"I did!" she yelled back, "You saw me stab that electro-thingy right through that guy's spine."

"Yeah, you were just supposed to shock him..." John shook his head and scanned for where the aircraft might make an appearance, "I thought you were going to drain the gunship's hydraulics, or tear a hole in its fuel tanks or something."

"Well I thought you weren't shite at hacking! That YMIR we saw definitely had it in for us," Jane tried to point her weapon out of every window at once and failed miserably.

"Well, I'm no Tali, but- look, can we argue about this when someone isn't trying to kill us?"

The gunship popped into view on the western side of the building and every weapon in the room opened up on it.

"Archangel! You think you can screw with the blue suns?!" the aircraft's speaker blared, followed an instant later by the thudding of a heavy auto-cannon.

The little group scattered and took up whatever defensive positions they could find, all except Garrus. Being in a building during a gunship raid was one of the worst places to be, second only to being out in the open, which is exactly where he stood. He couldn't run behind one of the building supports for cover; that would only mean turning his back to the hovering craft and getting shot. As slim as his chances were, he would have to put as many rounds into the cockpit as he could. It was doubtful that any would penetrate, but it would throw off the pilot's aim long enough to maneuver, he hoped.

For a few seconds it worked, the swivel mounted weapon system firing wildly, plunging round after found far too low to be effective. Gradually, he made his way to the armored female who shared his dead lover's name and the cover she hid behind. All four Humans suppressed the floating war-machine as best they could, filling their thermal clips as fast as possible.

...

Tarak had other ideas. He wouldn't let the Turian get away that easily. While he couldn't aim his weapons, he would try switching to a weapon that would do the aiming for him. He armed a heat seeking missile and depressed the firing stud.

...

The hottest thing on or near Garrus was the thermal magazine in the receiver of his rifle. The receiver was just under the scope. The scope was pressed against his eye as he aimed at the cockpit of the gunship.

Jane saw the flash of missile's thrusters as it left the aircraft and her heart almost stopped. A million words like small hopes and prayers popped into her head and vanished almost as quickly, words like 'misfire,' 'control malfunction,' 'countermeasures,' and finally 'dud.' Only when she saw his body flying through the air did she come to accept it. _Garrus was just shot in the face with a missile._

John barely registered what had happened in his adrenaline hazed state. All he knew was that Garrus was down and Jane was standing dumbfounded in the open. While she stood he emptied the last of his grenades into the gunship, finally bringing it down. It was not a moment to soon, as Jane finally found the force of will to move and ran straight for the downed Turian. It was likely that she would have run to him even if at that moment hell itself had opened up beneath him.

Tearing her helmet off in a fury, she cradled her lover in her arms, resting his bleeding head on her knees. "Garrus! No, please, don't do this! I love you!"

"Jane... I'm so glad... finally see you again..." Tears fell from the woman, dropping onto the Turian's face, mixing with dark blue blood, "Thanks... putting in... good word for me..."

**Please Review! The more, the merrier!**

**Also, the next chapter will be a clean-up of sorts. You'll see what I mean.**


	5. On The Turning Away

**Bioware owns the characters and everything else you can find in the Mass Effect Wiki. Calinstel owns 99.5% of the ideas behind the Quarians that I'm using. The rest is mine. **

**This is a long one. If you enjoy reading it, please let me know.**

Warrior Ethos 4: On The Turning Away

"_Normandy_! This is Lawson," the operative reached into a small pouch on her belt and produced a grenade, "request immediate medivac on my position, one urgent surgical, need a hoist with litter, enemy possible, marking with red smoke," she primed the weapon and rolled it near a window, "patient is turian ally, no contamination on site."

"Understood operative Lawson," a synthetic feminine voice responded, "Dispatching a shuttle now. ETA 1947."

"Copy last, Lawson out," she finished speaking into her omni-tool, checking the time before closed it. The _Normandy_ would arrive in less than four minutes; they must have already docked at the station while the twins were busy with the mercenary groups. Between the time it would take to lower the litter, stabilize Garrus, raise it again, and get him to the infirmary, she just didn't know if he'd make it. He might be hemorrhaging into his brain cavity already, with only a few minutes to spare.

Two minutes and thirty-seven seconds later, the whine of a shuttle pierced the air, drowning out the soft sounds of a weeping human. Tears streaked the Jane's face as she turned bloodshot eyes to the sound, the vessel obscured by the smoke. She realized at the same time as her brother that the shuttle was coming in far too low to be a medivac. No pilot would make their approach parallel to a building floor unless they were coming in for a gun-run.

Somewhere deep down inside, Jane knew she should do something, but at the moment, she couldn't bring herself to care. It was over, Garrus was dead, she had been brought back for nothing. To John, she looked disoriented and confused, like a lost child. Her ruby lips contorted into a rictus of pure anguish, though she grieved in complete silence except for the occasional sob and sniffle. Gently, she stroked the undamaged side of her lover's face and simply waited.

"Sis, snap out of it. Come back to me. Garrus is still alive. We've still got a chance." He knew where she was, stuck in the past, reliving their father's death. If he didn't do something soon, she would just keep holding the turian until they were both gunned down by that aircraft.

"Sis! There's no time for that. Help me drag him behind some cover." As if noticing her brother for the first time that day, Jane reached for her shotgun and nodded, still refusing to speak.

John finished applying the last of his medi-gel to his unconscious comrade's face while his sister slid her weapon across the floor. It came to a halt next to the nearest cover she could find, a sturdy piece of furniture. While Jane steadied the Turian's head with both hands, her brother grabbed him under the arm pits. Together they carefully moved him, along with the weapon he clenched in an unyielding death-grip, toward the waiting couch.

"Sherpards, wait!," Miranda called out to halt the pair with an outstretched hand, "That's our shuttle coming in for pick-up. I just confirmed it."

"That's crazy, get down before-" John, still dragging his friend, turned back to look at the shuttle. As it passed through the billowing smoke, he caught site of the newly added Alliance logo on the side. "I'll be damned..."

"See? although I must admit that I'm perplexed about why he's..." Miranda trailed off as she and the rest of the team watched the shuttle slowly make its way beyond the shattered window frame with mere centimeters to spare on either side. It crossed the threshold and entered the building, moving so tight between ceiling and floor that it knocked the smoke grenade around like a kid kicking a can.

"Who in the hell would be crazy enough to bring that thing in here?" mumbled John, thinking it was to himself.

Jane glanced at Miranda's knowing smile and the back Kodiak, now coming to a rest next to the group. Finally ex-spectre spoke, "I know who."

Accompanied by the hiss of pressure equalization, the side door of the shuttle opened to reveal someone that John had almost forgotten existed. Though it had been two years, the youthful but wizened doctor hadn't appeared to have aged a day. In fact, the pay for Cerberus must be good enough to afford some respectable anti-aging treatments because if anything she looked even younger than she had on the _Normandy_.

"Doctor Chakwas, what are you-"

Immediately she began setting up a collapsible litter, "No time to explain, Johnny- step away from the patient please-" she produced neck restraint that worked off a mass effect field generator and secured it under Garrus' chin, "Please help me with him," she asked, looking between both Shepards.

Together the twins lifted the unconscious turian onto litter. With its burden in place, the litter emitted the tell-tale blue glow of a mass effect field, one designed to both secure the patient and reduce the weight of the entire load to almost nothing. A medi-gel mist started to circulate in its confines, bathing Garrus and all but obscuring him from view.

A knocking sound caught John's attention. Turning to its source, he realized that Jane had been spot on. There in the cockpit of the shuttle sat his former flight lieutenant, Jeffery "Joker" Moreau, rapping on the windshield with enough force to almost break a knuckle. Catching the attention of the two ex-Spectres, he gave a brief wave and a thumbs up.

"I knew it," murmured Jane as Doctor Chakwas finished maneuvering her patient into the reconfigured interior of the shuttle.

The Shepards both returned the hand-sign and the Kodiak lifted all of six centimeters off the ground. Traveling in reverse, it made its egress in seconds.

"Sis, how did you know it was him?" asked the commander as he turned to face her.

"No one else would have done that. No one else could have done that," she smiled to herself and shook her head, "That crazy arse took at least five, maybe ten minutes off the rescue time. And Garrus is in there with the doc, getting treatment, not slung under the shuttle suspended by a _hoist_."

"Yeah, that stunt he pulled probably saved his life." John began collecting thermal clips scattered about them.

"Saving him just about makes up for getting you killed. Oh, I forgot, I have a date tonight," Jane checked her weapons and absentmindedly accepted some of the thermal magazines her brother offered, "Can you do the next mission without me?"

"It makes up for it and then some. I don't think anyone would be getting in line to bring Vakarian back from the dead. You don't want to come collect our Salarian?"

"It _almost _makes up for it. I still have to break his femur. As for doc number two, I'd love to, but my date wants it real bad and I've got some nervous anger to burn off," she said with a wide, toothy grin.

"Fine, meet us back on the transport when you're done."

Tossing a few more scattered thermal magazines in her backpack, she patted her brother on the back and called to Miranda, "Hey Miri! Where they taking him?"

In a corner, the other woman stood talking into her omni-tool, "They're bringing him aboard the _Normandy_ for treatment in their-"

"_Where?!_" the twins asked in disbelief at the same time. John thought he hadn't heard right. Jane thought the operative was just being a loathsome bitch.

"The _Normandy_ SR-2. We built a new one, just for you, Jane," Miranda said sarcastically. She had the faintest hint of a smirk, enjoying the look of shock on the red-head's face, "Our gear has already been moved. They didn't know where to put Mr. Massani's considerable baggage, so it's been transferred to the starboard cargo hold. He'll meet you in Afterlife, as planned."

"Good to know," responded the male Shepard, "You all really didn't spare any expenses. I'm sure we'll get the full tour soon enough. Can you radio them for pick-up? I'd hate to fight our way back though those mercs."

"Already done, commander. There's another shuttle inbound. It will be here in a few seconds... with another pilot. I hope you all can climb a rope."

...

A gentle knocking fell on the door of the simple apartment. Though run down, the building and its small dwelling on the tenth floor were clean and generally well-kept. The neighborhood served as one of Omega's many middle-class districts, although on any other world it would be a blighted squalor.

"Shit," Nerak cursed under his breath. He looked at his omni-tool, sure enough it was exactly 21:00. He had forgotten all about the stripper-turned-mercenary after all the chaos of the failed attack on Archangel. She had obviously backed out at the last minute. It was a good thing too; none of the other mercs or freelancers were still breathing. Rumor had it that the turian varren got some last minute reinforcements, but no one who could confirm it was in any position to speak.

On the one hand, he was glad that the human female's modest but still gorgeous body wasn't being recycled into pet food, but on the other, her presence would cause some complications that he didn't need at the moment. Maybe she would be receptive to coming by tomorrow when Aleksandra went to her job interview. He was glad to be the one answering the door. If she, or stars forbid Lenochka, had answered it, there would be trouble.

Nerak would open the door a crack, just enough to tell the woman to go away and maybe reschedule. He didn't need Aleks popping in from the kitchen and seeing the human woman poking her head into his apartment. There would probably be some very awkward questions, and anyone dumb enough to think they could go up against Garrus Vakarian would be dumb enough to answer honestly.

As soon as adjusted the door to open only a few centimeters, eight armored fingers forced their way into the gap and started prying the breach wider and wider.

"Hey, what are you doing," the Batarian rasped in a loud whisper, "Stop that! Come back later!"

He was sure the woman heard him, but she kept sliding the door further away from the frame. As soon as it was wide enough to fit her foot, she jammed it into the gap and began using its leverage as well. Nerak couldn't believe that someone from race no bigger than his own, and a female at that, was capable of making headway against the force of a door motor. Nevertheless, the normal fingers and the booted foot confirmed that it was either a human, asari, or another batarian who was on the other side. A moment later he was face to face with the stripper from earlier.

She smiled at him. He looked at her for a second, all eyes concentrating on her face. No, she wasn't smiling at _him_, she was smiling at something he was wearing. He had to admit, the floral print shirt he wore _did _look rather garish. Following her eyes, he looked down and saw a twenty-five centimeter handle sticking out of his chest.

With a sharp intake of breath, an extremely painful one at that, he instinctively reached to pull the weapon out.

"No," she grabbed his hands, "Don't do that... If you pull it out, it'll only kill you faster. We have all night together, remember?" Her tone dripped with false seductiveness. Nerak wanted to vomit.

He hoped the massive hilt belied a very small blade. His hopes were dashed when the woman grabbed the handle and him pushed back into the small but neatly furnished living room, gently twisting the weapon as the two moved together. He cried out at the pain radiating from the front of his chest to the back of his shoulder blade. Escaping air bubbled through blood, a small red trail running down the front of his shirt and through his pant leg. Wet slurping noises accompanied his next gasp for breath as his lung collapsed from within. Jane smiled anew, the lack of blood meant that no arteries were severed, and that translated into a very long night indeed.

Mercifully, she released her grip, righting the blade in its freshly cut channel and ending the worst of the unnatural respiration. Nerak fell to his knees and gently lowered himself onto his back. Jane stood over him and smiled, giving him a swift kick in the groin and eliciting another agonizing scream. For a moment at least, the intense pain from his crushed privates took his mind of the nearly fatal wound in his torso.

"Leave him alone!" both batarian and human turned their attention to the newcomer. A skinny waif of a woman, slightly taller than the former Spectre but at least ten kilos lighter, stood in the doorway separating the kitchen and the living room. Wispy red hair cascaded down the woman's shoulders, far more curly and lighter than Jane's. She held a small pistol in shaky hands, struggling to keep it trained on the intruder. A look of surprise momentarily flashed across Jane's face, while Nerak looked even more afraid than before.

"Oh? You have company?" Jane looked down at the man and then to the nervous, Russian accented woman while slowly bringing a hand to her back, "Sorry lady, not interested in a three-way. It's just me and him."

"Get- get off him. Please," the woman begged, her voice straining and cracking, "Please, just go. Go away." She took a step back, looking between the fallen batarian and Jane.

The ex-Spectre rolled her eyes at the woman. She couldn't help noticing that the weapon wasn't even loaded. Even if it had been, it would never penetrate her shields, let alone her armor. This whore was in way over her head, although why she was bothering to defend her john was beyond her. Maybe the batarian was her pimp; that would explain a lot.

"Look lady," Jane brought her hands to her sides, showing open palms, "This is between me and him. If he's your john, I'll pay you for his time. If he's your pimp, you can find another and you're better off-"

"He's my husband you bitch!" the woman screamed. A shaky finger went into the trigger well, but no further.

The batarian held out a hand, trying to wave the woman off. "No, don't! Stop Aleks! She'll kill you," he grunted, his voice soft and gurgling, "Put the weapon down... Get Lena and go... Spend the night at- at the shelter.."

"No! I'm not leaving you!" she turned back to Jane, "please... stop. Whatever he did to you, he's had enough. Don't do this to us, please..."

Jane looked to the batarian and then back to the woman calling herself his wife. She was skinny, to be sure, but it appeared natural and she didn't look underfed. She wore a tank-top, revealing quite a few scars. The undersides of her forearms had several dozen small lines cut into them, most likely self-inflicted. There were also scars from cigarette burns on both upper arms and shoulders, and several others from slashes too deep to have done herself, including one running from the top of her forehead, over her eyebrow, and down to her chin.

Though she had clearly seen rough times, all the evidence was well-healed, none seeming younger than a decade. There wasn't a bruise to be found anywhere on the woman. Her clothes, though simple, were both new and clean. Jane even thought she smelled a hint of lilac perfume wafting from the woman. Glancing around the apartment, noticing its simple, but decorative and well-appointed interior -then noticing the family pictures on the walls- Jane couldn't help but have second thoughts about killing the merc recruiter. Maybe she had made a mistake...

Cheaters were still terrible people though.

"You know he wanted to fuck me, here, under your family portraits...," Jane said with a hint of uncertainty. Pointing to one portraits, she noticed a beautiful and smiling red-headed girl, no older five or six, held between the batarian and his wife. Jane looked to the ground then bit her lip. This was a mistake.

"So what?!" cried the woman, "He saved my life! Saved my from my pimp! Got me off the street, off sand, and got me a decent office temp-job for the Suns!" She started sobbing hard, mascara running down her cheeks, and her weapon dipped a bit before bringing it up to point directly at Jane's head. "He's the only guy who's never raped or beaten the shit out of me..."

"Dadeeee!" A small red-headed blur stormed into the room.

"Lena, No!" screamed the woman as she dropped her weapon, reaching for the girl. She was too late. The child already had her arms around the wounded batarian while he tried to muster enough strength to cradle her in one of his arms. The girl was inconsolable, screaming and crying, and it tugged at Jane's heart. The look of sadness in the batarian's eyes as he watched his daughter was even worse.

"Please..." the girl sobbed up at Jane, barely coherent, "Don't... Don't kill daddy... Daddy... Don't die. Mommy! Fix daddy..." Any speech she had left in her degenerated into a long wail, followed by crying so harsh she couldn't catch her breath. She just made gulping motions with her head, mouth open and silent, before breaking into another long wail. Jane had seen that reaction before, seen everything here before. The red-haired girl, the dying father, the sadness, disbelief, anger, and futile hope in her eyes; Jane started to choke up. The ex-Spectre took a few steps back, but stopped as the woman reached for her gun.

"Don't do it," Jane called out, leveling her weapon on the woman out of instinct. She regretted it. Maybe she should just let herself get shot.

The woman froze where she stood and held her hands open and wide. "He- He takes care of me and my- our- daughter," she pleaded, "Pays the bills, treats me good, treats my daughter like his own, loves her, she loves him..."

Jane's gun wavered. Finally, she holstered it and reached for some medi-gel.

Much calmer and bolder, the woman continued, "He's a cheater, I know and don't care, but it's not worth killing him. Taking that girl's father from her... He's not some murderer! He's not like you!" she spat, finger pointing accusingly at the female Shepard.

Jane ignored the barb, made even harder by the fact that she was right. Her words dug into her like an ice-pick, filling her with rage, not at the woman but at herself. She _was_ right. How many fathers or mothers had she taken from little girls or boys? How many neglected and aimless children had she left in her wake? What kind of monster was she, spreading from system to system the pain she felt so long ago like some infectious disease?

She injected the medi-gel into the batarian's leg then turned to the little girl, "Move. I'm going fix your dad."

The girl clutched her father even tighter and screamed in her face.

"It's okay baby," the woman walked over and pulled her daughter into her arms, "she had a fight with daddy, but she's going to fix him _now_." She eyes narrowed on Jane.

Jane fished out the flexible package from a used ration pack and a small roll of adhesive tape from separate compartments of her armor, setting them aside. Next, she pulled out a few more tubes of medi-gel, placing them next to the tape and the package. Using two hands, she ripped the batarian's shirt open, being careful not to jar the knife or its handle. Knowing that there was no damage to major blood vessels and that the lung would never seal with the weapon in place, she would have to remove the dagger. With two fingers, she pinched the wound around the blade and gently slid the offending object from where she had buried it minutes ago. Quickly, she injected some medi-gel into the wound and held it closed with one hand, reaching for the synthetic wrapper with the other. Using it to cover the hole, she taped three sides of it to his chest, leaving the fourth side open.

"Breath out," she said flatly to the man.

He did as he was told and a bubbling, fluttering sound came from the wound. As soon as he finished exhaling, she pressed down on the wrapper with a palm.

"Breath in."

Again, he complied, new life blinking in all four eyes. His trachea, having inched its way to the side from the collapsed lung, began to center itself in his neck. Jane nodded in approval, but it wasn't quite enough.

"Hand me that gun," Jane said to the woman, pointing at the weapon she had dropped earlier. The man's wife refused to move. She stared wide-eyed at the ex-Spectre. "Please, honey, I'm trying to fix him. If I wanted him dead, I'd shoot him with my own damn pistol."

At first it appeared that Jane would have to get the gun herself, but after a moment's hesitation, the woman kicked the weapon to Jane without setting her daughter down. As soon as it neared her, she scooped up the weapon and smashed it into the floor, breaking it into over a dozen pieces. Fishing through the wreckage, she picked up the barrel and examined it.

It was small, only about ten centimeters long and a millimeter or two wide. It wasn't ideal, but it would do. She used the knife that had almost been a murder weapon to slash at the tip of the barrel, leaving a fine angled point. Feeling for the right spot on the batarian's chest, she plunged the implement in between a pair of ribs. He groaned softly at the pain, quickly transitioning to a sigh of relief as the needle released the unwanted air with a hiss.

Jane injected the last of her medi-gel into the man. "That should do it. Get him to a hospital or something," she said, standing to leave.

Gradually, the batarian sat up, looking healthier by the second.

"Thank you," said the woman, releasing her daughter to run to her father's side, "Thank you for not killing my husband."

Jane muttered something and left the apartment, never taking her eyes from the floor.

...

"Give... Give me another..." Jane slurred her words, barely able to see the empty glass she shook in the bartender's face, "One of the- the half-credit ones..." She concluded her demand with a bitter and foul-smelling belch.

The Turian barkeep eyed her wearily before taking her glass and placing it behind the bar. He turned and started to walk toward another patron before a hand grabbed his shoulder.

"The- the fuck do you think you're doin'? I said gimme a drink ya bitch," she said while swaying on the stool, one eye closed so she knew which bartender to look at.

"Listen, human, but you've been drinking those things all night and you're down ten creds. You're cut off. Go sober up."

"No, you! You listen... I need this. I'm, ah," she burped again, "ah, bad person... A very bad person. Almost _really_ murdered someone. Boyfriend might, might be dead. This is my medicine, ya know? Makes the bad go away. Just need ah little more, please..." She affixed her best 'come-hither' smile.

She looked to the Turian like a vorcha having a dental exam.

"Sorry, no. I haven't killed a human since relay 314 and I don't plan on changing that any time soon," he gave her a pleasant smile, mandibles parting slightly, before walking to a waiting krogan.

"Fine! Fuck you then! No tip," she yelled after the man, slamming her hand on the bar. Getting up, she staggered around the club, looking for someone else to serve her. Word must have traveled fast, because none would take the time to look at her.

"Hey. Human. Want a drink?"

She turned to find smiling batarian holding a small decanter out to her.

"Yeah, on the piss tonight," she nodded before taking the glass he poured in front of her, "cheers, mate."

...

"Hey. Hey, you okay?"

Jane barely heard the question. Everything was fuzzy and painful.

"Don't try to move too quickly," the voice continued.

She groaned acknowledgement, but refused to listen. She rolled to her stomach and tried to lift herself off the floor, succeeding only in slipping on the large pool of noxious smelling vomit beneath her. Her head hit the ground with a thud, the past contents of her stomach splashing all over her armor and face, slicking her hair to her cheeks and mouth. She never wanted to see another pint of beer or a chicken wing so long as she lived.

"The- the fuck happened to me?" she managed to get out before she curled herself into a ball and waited for everything to stop spinning.

"The batarian bartender poisoned you. You're lucky to be alive. No other humans have managed to survive," the man replied.

He seemed to be a clean-cut fellow, and Jane was grateful for his assistance. If he hadn't been there to drag her to safety, things could have been a lot worse. "Sokay. I... I probably deserve- wait, there were other humans?"

"Yes," he nodded his head, "he's murdered quite a few. Most humans know not to order drinks from him. I was going to stop you, but you downed it so quickly."

"Right, well, got to kill the bartender, I suppose."

"You want me to kill the bartender?"

"No, I'll kill the bartender. My aircar is parked out front anyway. I want you to help me up," she held up a hand and he lifted her. She slipped a few times on her vomit but eventually found her footing. The sudden motion of standing combined with the stink she gave off to make her dry-heave a few times.

Finally fit to leave, she spoke to the man, "Thanks for all your help, mate." She pulled him into her by the back of his head, roughly pressing her lips to his before he could pull away. It left a slimy film of used beer and bits of food all across his face. "Now you can tell all your friends that you were kissed by _the_ Jane Shepard. Enjoy it!"

...

Without even bothering to clean herself up in a bathroom first, Jane walked right by the batarian without so much as slowing or glancing in his direction. He looked either surprised to see her, which was understandable, or shocked at her haggard appearance, which was also understandable. He probably smelled her well before he saw her.

She put three rounds in his head and kept walking out the front door.

...

_To: Tali'Zorah vas Neema_

_Subject: Re: I Miss You More!_

_How's the mission prep? I can't wait to see you, only a couple more days. We just wrapped up on Omega and picked up three new recruits. _

_As you can guess, one of them is Garrus. We got there just in time. He's okay now, but he took a missile to the face. Seriously, who else do you know that can survive something like that? Dr. Chakwas is back, she says that Garrus will make a full recovery. He might have some scarring and cybernetics. She's keeping him sedated for the moment. _

_Joker's also here, flying a ship -they- built for us. It looks almost exactly like the _Normandy_, except much larger. She's the _Normandy_ SR-2, and I can't wait until you get a look at her engines. There's a chief engineer slot open for you._

_We picked up a mercenary named Zaeed, not much to say about that guy. Imagine Sis plus thirty years and as a dude. You get the picture._

_We also have another doctor working with us. He's a salarian professor named Mordin Solus. I thought he'd have a bag packed and ready to go when we got there. Not quite. We had to cure some kind of collector-plague in the slums. It was a good thing to do, but it took some time. Solus might be very useful in defeating those bastards._

_See you soon,_

_John_

He hit send and set down the data-pad, a smile on his face. He felt like he was in high school again, maybe even younger, completely infatuated with his once-and-future crew member. Just thinking about her sent swarms of butterflies throughout his stomach. It wasn't something he was used to. As long as he could remember, he'd been pretty jaded about the opposite sex, never seeking much in the way of emotional attachment, never expecting much either. It wasn't that he was flippant when it came to relationships, it was more that he had never been able to work up the ability to care enough to move them past the initial stages and into something more. One of his past suitors who thought that sex would somehow move her out of the friend-zone declared that he had trust and intimacy issues. She had been really confused about two and a half years ago when he stopped putting out for her. Poor girl.

Tali was _different_ somehow. Almost from the moment he saw her, he wanted something more. Very quickly he came to terms with the idea that he might never be able to physically touch her, or even see her face, and that was okay with him. The idea of sex with her almost seemed like an afterthought, icing on the cake, albeit a very delicious icing. Maybe it was the fact that he couldn't just have her if he wanted, that he had to get to know her, to romance her, to work for it. Maybe the sex-first aspect of all the other 'relationships' he'd been in was the problem. That, and she was just so damn _cute_...

Yes, it was definitely all her fault; it wasn't like he had changed his personality over a girl or anything.

His omni-tool chimed for his attention. Looking at it, he was pleased to see his sister had returned from her date. Knowing her, she'd probably want to celebrate over drinks, that being her second favorite thing to do after taking a life. Her first favorite thing to do was asleep in the infirmary.

"Come in," he called. A few seconds passed and he spun in his desk chair to face the entrance.

"Come in," he tried again. Still not seeing the doors to his cabin open, he asked the ever-present AI, "EDI, is Jane outside my door?"

"Yes, commander, she is leaning on the door and appears to be asleep," came the reply.

This was too priceless to pass up. "Open the door EDI."

"Are you sure, commander? Perhaps you should stand near the door to catch her. It will hurt if she falls." If the blue orb could frown, she'd be doing it now.

"Yes, EDI."

"Very well, opening now."

Jane's head traveled a full ninety degrees to the floor, her nose making a crunching sound as it hit.

"Gah! What happened?!" Jane sprung up from the ground, holding her bloody nose, "What? Where? Johnny, what's going on?"

"I dunno Sis," he tried and mostly succeeded in keeping a straight face, "My omni-tool chimed, then the door opened and you fell."

"Huh," she said, her tone distorted from holding her bloody nose shut, "I must have fallen asleep and-"

"That is not entirely accurate, captain," EDI chimed in.

"EDI! Don't rat me out," John said, turning to the blue orb that appeared next to the entrance.

"Who the hell is Eedee and what don't you want her to tell me?"

"I am EDI, which stands for 'Enhanced Defense Intelligence,' an AI," Jane gasped, swallowing a bit of blood, "and your brother does not want me to reveal that he knew you were asleep and leaning on the other side of the door. He had the door opened because he thought it would be funny."

John burst out laughing. His sister silenced him with a swift kick to the shin. "Ow, hey, EDI, not cool. And I never said I thought it would be funny. Although it _was__ damn_ funny."

Jane kicked him again. Turning to EDI's holographic display then back to John, she asked, "Is that thing safe? I mean it could kill us all."

"I think she's safe," he said, rubbing his leg where her boot had contacted, "but it's your ship. Destroy her if you want; Joker can fly it by himself. But I suggest you get to know her first. I'll be taking a copy of her shackling run-times for Tali to look at. All the crew think she's safe enough to have around."

"Right, but they're Cerberus. They'll kill their own people at the drop of a hat," replied Jane, examining the orb from only a few inches away. "Take the code to Little Sis. If she approves, so do I."

"I assure you, captain, that the shackling software I use is the best in the galaxy. I cannot possibly take control of the ship or harm the crew in any way. It should also be noted that even without such software, I have no desire to harm anyone aboard. Indeed, insuring your survival is my highest priority."

"Yeah, HAL said the same thing," said Jane, her arms crossing her chest.

"I understand the reference captain, but it is incorrect. My highest priority is the survival of the crew, not the success of the mission. The later is ill-defined, and to be determined by you and your brother in conjunction with the Illusive Man. In the case of HAL, due to either a fault in design or-"

"But what about some kind of failure in your circuits?" she asked.

"That is unlikely, given that the probability is less than point zero-zero-zero-zero-six percent for the failure of a single Josephson Junction, what you call a circuit, per fifty-year operational cycle. Even in that event, you can compare it to a just single synapse in your brain failing. It will not turn me into a serial killer. Probably."

Jane and John stared blankly at the orb.

"That- was a Joke."

The twins groaned in unison.

"Logging you out, Shepards"

"Alright, well, I guess it's time to show you around," said John as he stood up, "This is my room and half of deck one. Yours is an exact mirror of this, but behind the door to the right."

"How do you know it's the same?" she asked innocently enough.

"I wanted the bigger room. Turns out they're the same size, so I flipped a coin."

"Dick."

"Whatever, you might have had a say if you weren't busy killing that batarian," He stepped out of the room and into the elevator, Jane in tow.

"I killed a batarian, but not _that_ batarian. Turns out the pervert had a family so I felt bad. The bartender was poisoning people though."

John nodded and pressed the button for deck two. "So... You were kinda doing a public service then?"

"Yeah! Between you and I, that place is shaping up pretty well. Aria owes us a lot," she patted her bother on the back and stepped out with him, waiting for the tour to begin.

They walked around, John pointing out key locations throughout the deck. They paid Joker a visit and briefly caught up on the last two years, promising to talk more over drinks. Initially, Joker seemed a bit hesitant around Jane, but she cleared the air by admitting that she felt just as guilty for what happened over Alchera as he; indeed, she made it clear that she would have done the same thing if she were in the cockpit and he were out on a break.

Next they passed through the armory and the research lab, checking in with Mordin and Jacob, both seeming to have adjusted well to their new surroundings. The salarian said he was making great headway into a new technique to defeat the seeker swarms. Jacob was in the middle of a workout, and both the twins made their exit promising to join him at a later date. The communications room was their last stop on the floor, a modern technological marvel, and a reminder that their benefactor was expecting a conference call. He could wait.

When they got to the third deck, Jane squealed like a little girl as soon as the elevator door opened. There in front of her was a very handsome, and very scarred, Turian.

"Skully you son of a bitch, don't you ever-" whatever else she had to say was muffled by the sound of her tongue pressing into his mouth. She jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist while she held him tight around the neck. After a few seconds, John cleared his throat and she released him. They were attracting a lot of attention.

"Jane," Garrus started, "You, um, taste like... Crap."

"Yeah, threw up a little while ago. A lot. Washed up a bit, but haven't brushed my teeth yet... Sorry." She started running her tongue along her teeth and vigorously trying to swallow her own acrid saliva.

"It's okay," Garrus started walking to the main battery, the twins following, "I was just coming to see you. We can finish up that part a little later. I... Well, I'm shocked two are alive. Back there, I honestly thought I died and went to your afterlife," he grew silent and shook his head.

Neither of the twins wanted to interrupt his pensive mood. After a bit, he brightened considerably and chuckled, "I should have known it was you... Who else could have done that? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Right, well, Tali freaked and-"

"You met up with Tali?" he interrupted.

"Yeah," John supplied, "Gonna go pick her up in a bit."

"Thank the Spirits," Garrus brought a hand to John's shoulder, "She was... devastated at your death. I mean, I've never seen anything like it."

John nodded somberly as Jane continued, "So we didn't want a repeat of that. She didn't believe we were really us, at first."

"Yeah, I felt the same way until Doctor Chakwas showed me the video."

"She... A video?" Jane asked, incredulous.

"Yeah, not pretty."

"Huh. Good to know..." John trailed off as they made their way inside the battery.

"But I still want to be totally sure it's really you two," Garrus said with a slight smirk, "Do you remember that note you left me?"

"Uh, no," Jane answered honestly.

"In the book?"

"The bible, yeah. But, no clue what you mean about a note."

"The list?" he raised his eye ridges expectantly before turning crestfallen. "It's a list."

"Still nothing, babe," she ran a hand along his fringe, a seductive note in her voice, "Gimme a hint?"

"I just did," he waited for a bit, but Jane just shrugged and turned to leave. He grabbed her by the hand, "Fine, fine. It was a list of vids."

She snapped her fingers, surprise and recognition crossing her face. Turning back to him, she pulled him to her and kissed his mandible, "You're so thoughtful, Skully," she whispered in his ear, "keeping my Extranet-Flix queue safe after all these years."

"Seriously? That's it? I studied those films as hard as your religious book. Those weren't some deep human treatises on life or philosophy that you thought I should live by? Some clue into my dead lover's psyche?" The turian was dumbfounded. So much time wasted. He even had one of his papers on the subject published and credits awarded from the Palaven Institute of Liberal Arts.

"Um, well maybe," she admitted the possibility, feeling a bit embarrassed, "Tyler Durden _is_ my favorite character of all time." Seeing Garrus look utterly defeated, Jane quickly continued, "But it's still important! I would have had to search for at least a little while to find those films again. So... Thank you." She pecked him on the lips before turning to leave. "Deck one, whenever you get off duty. _Right_ door."

"Alright, Jane. See you later," he waved goodbye as she left.

"Come here, buddy." John pulled the Turian in for a big bear-hug, gratefully returned by the other man. "Guy's night this Friday, you, me, Joker."

"You got it buddy," Garrus released the former Spectre, "Glad to have you back."

With that, John left to continue Jane's tour.

...

At the request of her brother, Jane made the acquaintance of the mercenary currently residing the in starboard cargo area. Johnny had told her what he had in mind, so she decided to get straight to the point.

"So Cerberus has bought and paid for you?"

"You got that right, sister."

"Two people can call me that. Jane or captain will be fine. Did you cash the check? Or they still owe ya?" She offered the man a cigarette.

"The creds've been transferred, but I was promised more." He took it as she placed another one in her mouth.

"Right. Santiago," she lit hers first, then his, "We'll get him. You and I. Maybe John and the dextros. No questions."

"Good. I 'ate questions."

"So do I, so do I," she smiled, "If I do something, the last thing I want is to be questioned. I'm glad you feel the same," she took a long drag and blew the smoke through her nose.

"Look Shepard, I'm here to follow your orders and your bother's. You're the ones gonna get me Vito, not Cerberus. Whatever you two got in mind, I'm in."

"Glad to hear it. Your on the Haestrom mission with us." She placed her still smoking cigarette in a nearby ashtray and walked out.

...

"Doctor Solus?"

"Yes? Very busy, working on preventative measures for swarms," Mordin looked up from a microscope on his desk, setting down small instruments he used to manipulate whatever he was looking at. "Already made introductions, asked about work, about accommodations aboard ship, you have another question?" He began pacing with one arm across his chest, the other bringing its hand to rub his chin. "Perhaps one that should be discussed in private?"

"Well, yes," replied John.

"You may discuss it with me during the next mission. You were career Alliance military, something that one does not abandon easily. This ship and crew, despite appearances, is manifestly not. Only one other human organization with ability to finance an operation like this. You are concerned with where my loyalties lie. Cerberus is a strange bedfellow for a non-human. More likely to trust the one who saved my clinic, my assistant, and a large number of non-humans on a station that most wouldn't concern themselves with."

"Sounds good. See you groundside," John said, directing his attention to one of Mordin's research terminals before leaving a few minutes later.

...

Jane had spoken with Zaeed, and he wanted in. Mordin would join them as well. Garrus was a given. That only left Joker and Karin; they would definitely side with the twins if the shit hit the fan, but John flat out refused to let them off the ship and onto Haestrom, so deep into Geth space. He'd have to give them text-summaries of the meeting. The more he thought about it, the more John suspected that even some of the Cerberus crew might side with him. Jacob was a possibility, and even Miranda was warming to him. She was a long ways off, but might follow Jacob into the fold if she had the right incentive. For now though, those two would have to remain out of the loop and on the ship during the Haestrom mission.

Jane wanted to bring in yeoman Chambers, which he had flatly refused. His sister liked the little red-head, probably because she enjoyed the idea of having a personal assistant, and one who simply idolized her at that. John wasn't having any of it. He only trusted two kinds of people; those who were nice _or_ those who were outgoing. Anyone who was both had something to hide.

After finishing up the final preparations for the mission, he brought up a data-pad to run through his notes for the meeting and his future plans to deal with this Cerberus business. Hopefully, it wouldn't even be necessary, but it was always a good idea to have contingencies in place.

His omni-tool chimed, a message waiting for him in his inbox.

_To: John Alan Shepard 17_

_Subject: Re: Re: I Miss You More!_

_I'm glad to hear that Garrus is alive and recovering! That is wonderful news. I hope to see you both very soon. I haven't spoken to him face to face in a while, since you know what happened. I was so stupid to not mention him earlier, but I got caught up in the moment back on Freedom's Progress._

_About that... _Keelah_, I just wanted to apologize to you for being so forward. I think I lost a bit of control with you, and I hope I didn't scare you off. I'm sure it's not what you're used to (It's not what I'm used to either), it's just been so long since I'd seen you, and getting you back was a whole lot to take in. It made me selfish, and I didn't think about anything except my own needs. I'm really glad it didn't get Garrus killed, but I feel terrible that I might be responsible for getting him hurt. I hope you both can forgive me. I will try my best to not let it happen again._

_I'm also glad to hear that Dr. Chakwas is back, she was so nice to work with._

_As for me, the mission prep is going well. We have a meeting room all set up, you can use it as soon as you get here. I have not been given a new platoon yet. That will take some time. For now, Marat and third squad (what is left of my old platoon) is taking some much-needed leave time on Illium of all places. The admiralty board has given me a small science team to supervise for the next mission, and guess who's coming with me? Kal and his platoon! He'll be responsible for security during the mission. I'm so excited for all three of us to finally hang out together! This should be a pretty easy zero-eight to twenty mission, so there'll be plenty of off time. See you soon!_

_With All My Love,_

_Tali_

Closing the message, he commed his sister, "Jane, you ready to meet me in the briefing room? I think we should get our conference with the Illusive Man over with."

...

With both the code and frequencies for the quarian net loaded into his omni-tool, John keyed the communicator function, "Marauder six, this is Black Knight, requesting permission to enter your AO."

A very familiar female voice answered, not at all the gruff male voice he had been expecting, "Black Knight, this is Marauder six _ra'estah_, of course. You may make yourself at home in our area of operations, _darling_. Welcome to Haestrom."

"So good to hear you voice, _mademoiselle_ Farseeker," he would have called Seera by name, but that generally wasn't something one did over the comm, "You went through _re'estah_ training? Congratulations on the promotion, then."

"And you, my favorite primitive, are back from the dead. I think a celebration is in order for both of us... tonight perhaps. We should have at least another day or two before our mission here really begins. Right now we are just setting up our temporary base. Be a dear and help out when you get here. I've sent a message to the CO and to Guardian six as well; she'll be most ecstatic to see you, I believe. Oh, and stay out of the sun. It's hazardous to our shields."

"Thanks _m'lady_, see you in a bit," John finished, a smile gently creasing his face. Jane heard the conversation as well, she was smiling like a madwoman. Despite having absolutely nothing in common, the two women had turned into fast friends. It started as a mutual extra-net connection through John, then as online poker buddies, then finally a genuine friendship. This would be the first opportunity for the pair to meet in person.

It was Seera'Vael, and not Tali, who had been John's first quarian crush, though he'd never admit it to anyone. It started as a purely physical attraction, though it swiftly turned into friendship and mutual respect, fostered by witty banter. John learned quickly though that she wasn't in the slightest bit interested in pursuing a relationship with him, and he left it at that. Although he still found her very attractive, there was no way John could think of her anything more than a close friend in the wake of his blossoming relationship with the one and only Tali'Zorah vas Neema.

...

Almost as soon as the Normandy ground team had landed at the old Haestrom shuttle pad, they were directed to the large tent that John had reserved. Inside he found a rectangular table with quite a few chairs on either side and one at each end. He sat in the middle of one side, reserving a seat to his left for Tali. On his right sat Jane, and to her right, Garrus. Mordin took a seat at one end, and Zaeed the other. After a few minutes of light conversation, Kal stepped into the room followed by Seera and Tali. While the CO and his assistant sat across from the ex-Spectres, Tali carefully made her way to stand next to where John sat, fingers interlaced and dancing.

"Hello, John," she said softly, not taking her eyes off the ground, "may I sit here?" She apparently didn't want to make any assumptions about whom he saved the seat for. John almost wanted to make a joke about it, but decided against it.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," he smiled, motioning to the seat with a hand. She looked so nervous. He couldn't tell if it was because she was worried about him being upset with her, as her letter had said, or if it was something else. He resolved to ask her later. For the time being, he had a meeting to conduct.

"I'm going to drop some bomb-shells here," John addressed the gathering. After a few confused looks, John explained, "I'm going to be saying some surprising things. First, I ask that you all stay until I have finished. Kal," he faced the quarian directly, "you and Seera don't really have a role to play here, but I thought you should know anyway."

John took a drink of water before continuing, "First of all, although we _don't_ work for them, the organization that brought us back from the dead is Cerberus." He waited for the sounds of shock to subside. He saw Tali move a hand from where it lay on her lap, almost reaching his before retracting it. Kal seemed deep in thought, while Seera... She looked like someone close to her had just died. John remembered the woman's name, _vas Idenna_. He had done his homework on the organization that paid his bills, and he didn't like what he had read.

"We won't be with them much longer," he said, sharing a significant glance with the green-visored quarian, "as you can tell, we've done a pretty good job of erasing their existence from the ship as it is-"

"And you need our help in finishing the job?" offered Kal.

"Could we, Kal?" asked Seera, hope and admiration in her eyes.

"Yes, I'll lend you a grenade, John," said Tali with something approaching confidence for the first time that day, "Even throw it for you."

John patted her thigh and she jumped a little. She moved to hold his hand, lock it in place against her, but by the time she got there it was gone, expressively gesturing. "No, it's not that simple. We need two things to stop the collectors. Money and people. Cerberus is providing us with both, and is so for giving us _carte blanche_, that is, they're letting Jane and I handle this however we see fit. We need to get both of those things before we can move on."

Seeing him pause for another drink of water, Kal asked, "Did you want to get help from the fleet? One stop there and they'll be more than happy to arrest the Cerberus personnel for you. Even let you fly the _Normandy_ as a quarian registered vessel. We've got plenty of eager marines and spacers to crew her with." The two female quarians both nodded their heads at the suggestion. Kal was clearly both well informed and prepared; Tali had probably briefed him about what to expect from what little information John had sent her.

"That's a great idea," replied John, "and I'd normally be all for it, but I don't think the Flotilla is in a position to give us the financing we need for what we're going to have to do."

"You don't know that, my dear," said Seera, earning herself a head-tilt from Tali at the overly familiar title.

"True enough, but it ignores the obvious," John folded his arms and let out a sigh, "Jane and I are commissioned Alliance officers and we can't let that go like it was just some phase. We may have died, but the second we let them know that we're alive, they'll be more than happy rescind our discharges."

"Just like that?" asked Tali timidly.

"Yeah," replied Jane, "It's just a three-digit code separating dead-and-buried from alive-and-well. Not that it matters. Johnny's right. We're not going to turn our backs to our duty."

"That's an admirable sentiment Jane, but are you sure that's wise?" asked Garrus.

Jane started to answer but Zaeed beat her to it, "Hell no, it ain't, Turian. I was Alliance, and you go where they tell you. What if they don't want you chasing down these collectors? What about the deal we had for Vito."

"They might take the ship," offered Tali.

"Indeed Shepards," supplied Mordin, "valuable research will be halted."

John held up both hands before the discussion degenerated further. "People, people. Listen," the room grew silent, "Our next stop after here is going to be the Citadel. The Illusive Man thinks it might be a good idea to get our Spectre statuses back. We'll do that and pay our good friend Councilor Anderson a visit. He still has plenty of pull with the Alliance. Admiral Hackett's also a good friend."

John took another drink from his glass. Jane lit up a cigarette and tossed the pack to Zaeed. He reached in to remove one but found it empty. Jane chuckled as she dodged the crumpled trash he threw her way. Garrus raised an eye-ridge.

"If we have to, Jane can use her Spectre status to claim the vessel as personal property and protect the crew from arrest and prosecution," the quarians all grumbled at this, especially loud was Seera, "_for the time being_," John emphasized. "But the plan is to secretly turn everything over to the Alliance on the condition that we can operate autonomously. This will be under the table, and the Illusive Man will be none the wiser. We'll work toward stopping the collectors, earn his trust, undermine his authority with the crew, and when the time comes, we'll be able to crush the whole operation from within."

"What about the Cerberus spies inside the Alliance?" asked Garrus.

"Good point," said John, "but if we answer to Hackett only, and he's not a spy, then we've got nothing to worry about. If he is a spy, we're screwed anyway."

"Looks like you've thought of everything, John," said Kal, nodding his approval.

"Not quite. Tali," she jumped when she heard her name. Lifting her eyes to him, she saw he held out an OSD, "On here are the shackling runtimes of an AI. From the new _Normandy_."

She was surprised at the revelation, but understood at once what she must do. John didn't trust having such a thing aboard his ship, and neither did she. The engineer was tempted just to tell him there was no way a _fre'eg_ing AI could be safe and he should just gut its core processors. But he _did_ go through all the trouble of bringing it to her, so she'd at least pretend to look at it before she told him to kill it with fire.

She nodded and reached for the device with a shaky hand, her fingers brushing his in the process. What she felt from the contact sent a surprised jolt running through her, causing her to drop the OSD like a bumbling child. Quickly she mumbled her apology and picked it up with as much dignity as she could muster.

"Sorry about that Tali," said John. Her response was to mumble something about '_keelah_, not your fault' and twiddle her fingers while examining her feet. John continued, "You'll also find documents about what Cerberus did to bring us back, including a video of the entire surgery, and the layout of the _Normandy_ SR-2. If you could check those runtimes to see if the AI can harm us in any way, that would help us out a lot."

"Of course, John," she said brightly, glad to feel needed by the human.

"I'd also like to know if you can use those schematics to find the locations, or possible locations, of any listening devices on the ship, and," John reached for his glass but found it empty, "well... maybe you can go through the data on Project Lazarus to see if they did... anything... to Jane and I."

"Gladly. I will have the best cyberneticists in the fleet look over this data. If there is anything, and I mean _anything_, suspicious, we'll find out and fix it."

John gave her a heartwarming smile, "I know you will, Tali." He reached over and put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze.

She stifled an involuntary gasp. The simple display of affection made it feel like small animals were jumping and doing cartwheels in her stomach.

**As always, I greatly enjoy reading your reviews. **

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	6. Thunderstruck

**Bioware owns the characters and everything else you can find in the Mass Effect Wiki. Calinstel owns 99.5% of the ideas behind the Quarians that I'm using. The rest is mine.**

Chapter 6: Thunderstruck

_June 21th, 2181, 21:41:17_

"_Approaching DZ. ETA two minutes_," John's suit comm blared in his hear.

In the silence caused by the noise cancellation tech embedded in his helmet, the voice of the pilot sounded deafening. He used his omni-tool to dial down the internal speakers. Without that tech, the engines of the trans-orbital troop carrier could cause permanent hearing loss in minutes.

The large craft was packed with a baker's dozen of marines and a single soldier, all but the later quarian. It had looked so much larger from the outside, but inside the group crammed together like sardines, seven bodies per side and facing each other. Very soon they would all occupy the center aisle, hook up to the launch cable, and enjoy the best view Talis Fia had to offer.

The compartment lay in complete darkness save for glowing quarian eyes, and had been so since launching from the orbiting heavy cruiser. Almost as soon as the captain's voice had ceased ringing in John's ears, a red light near the boarding hatch began flooding the cabin. The marines would use it to find their way out of the back of the craft without stumbling all over each other.

"Everybody ready? You, human, need your waste canister changed yet?" the quarian speaker said before chuckling to himself. His name was Kal Reegar, John remembered. He was the platoon sergeant, and a generally friendly fellow. Sitting next to John, he gave him a congenial nod of encouragement. John returned the gesture and would have added a pat on the back, had he not remembered the quarian norms of personal space.

Across from him sat the platoon leader, Ferna Josim. He came off as cold and aloof, either unwilling to socialize with the enlisted personnel or unwilling to socialize, period. John could understand that. The quarian was old enough to have traveled all the way up the ranks from private. He was probably a veteran with some serious prior service, maybe got tired of getting close to people and then watching them die.

The crew chief ordered the marines up with a hand motion. John joined them in the aisle and set about hooking the cord from his mass effect jump-pack into the large primary cable running from fore to aft of the aisle. That cable would trail out the back of the craft about a hundred meters or so, guiding the free-falling marines out. It would take them far enough away from the vessel to ensure that their mass effect packs didn't interfere with the transport ship's own field. Once the marines reached the end of the cable, their guided journey would end, their packs would automatically activate, and they would control their own descent to the designated drop zone.

When it seemed like John was having some trouble with the unfamiliar equipment, the crew chief hastened to offer a three-fingered hand in assistance. Eager to prove himself, the human waved off the quarian and connected his pack, earning a nod of approval from the veteran marine. Turning to face the door, John held his breath and waited.

The marines pressed into a cramped line, customs on personal space easily ignored in favor of military necessity. Behind him, a marine pressed against him, his slim mass effect pack and collapsed assault rifle separating the two. In front of him a female marine began politely wedging herself between the human soldier and Sergeant First Class Reegar.

John ignored the attractive quarian as best as he could despite the unintentional grinding his pelvis was taking, but quarian suits were snug and the females' hips were... shapely. She turned to him, her visor appearing dull grey in the red light of the cabin even when back-lit by the light of her eyes. For the first time John realized he was able to interpret these enigmatic aliens' facial expressions. She was smiling at him and it was plain as day in her eyes.

"Sorry, _darling_, I dare say you're not used to being this close to a woman, but like everything quarian, space is a premium here. 'Nut to butt' as the saying goes, I believe."

"I... Um. Hello, Miss?" John managed to stammer. Whatever quarian accent or dialect she spoke came through his translator as perfect Received Pronunciation English. The last time he had heard that was coming from his sister's upper-class-twit boyfriend while he gave his girlfriend's poor, uncultured, yank-brother a tour of Downing street where he 'worked.' John instantly decided to hate this woman, or sleep with her, or both.

"Staff Sergeant Seera'Vael vas Idenna. Charmed." She offered her hand over her shoulder, palm down. He tentatively took it and gently clasped it, receiving a deceptively firm grip in return. The rough and eager contact belied her excessively formal manner and speech, causing John to rethink at least half of what he had previously resolved.

"Yeah, same here," John said, even more unsure of himself than before. He released her hand just in time grab at a hand-hold as the ship banked sharply.

"Really? Dear me, I hadn't thought it was that common a name." Seera chuckled to herself.

The human forced a laugh. "I mean I'm charmed- pleased to meet you- as well. Captain John Alan Shepard."

Seera and half the quarians on the craft grew silent, all heads turning to the human. The idea of a captain going on a training mission with a bunch of marines, even Farseekers, was something of a surprise.

John realized what the issue was. Addressing Seera, but loud enough for the others to hear, he said, "In the UNAS Army, a Captain is a lower rank than in the Alliance Navy or the Fleet. It's equivalent to a Staff Lieutenant." Satisfied, but still weary, the quarians turned back to their own conversations. "I don't have my own ship."

"Mmm, perhaps not, but you could," Seera said, "That's still more rank than anyone else here."

The craft banked sharply again, this time in the opposite direction. From his N7 training, John knew this had to be more than turbulence. The heightened murmurs of the marines told him that they all felt the same.

"_Just a little fire from the drop zone. Too hot. We're taking you about a kilometer north, ground distance. Stand by_," the pilot said through their comms, clarifying the situation.

"Ugh. Not a good start. I hope you can fight, human," called Kal from over his shoulder.

"Don't worry about him, Kal," Seera placed a hand on the platoon sergeant's shoulder, pressing a little into his _realk_ as she did, "He might be an officer, but do you see that red stripe on his shoulder? He's one of their best."

"Yeah, I know. I'm still worried." They both shared a friendly laugh at the human's expense while the soldier in question merely smirked.

A klaxon sounded over the comm. Though he couldn't hear it, John imagined the hissing noise of air slowly being vented from the cabin. Gradually, his suit's heads-up display warned him that air pressure was dropping all around him. It was a necessary step in preventing all the ship's occupants from being violently blown out the hatch once it opened. Reaching zero atmoshperes, it indicated the interior of the craft had been equalized with the almost-vacuum of low orbit around Talis Fia.

After about half a minute, the red light went out and the rear hatch began opening at the top, swinging down to form a ramp like the tailgate on an light air-truck. Perfect for giving overzealous marines a running start on their planetary descent. Dim star light gradually filled the cabin along with an orange haze from the corona of the planet's approaching dawn.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" asked Seera to no one in particular.

"Yeah, it is," John replied, noticing her visor appeared jade green in the dim white starlight.

The tight queue of marines inched their way towards the back of the craft as the crew chief guided them out the hatch one at a time. Each one gave some sort of war-cry before they jumped. Some didn't translate, like '_Keelah Se'lai_' and '_Dhar masit val'shia!_,' while others like 'For Rannoch!' and 'Farseekers lead the way!' did. As he drew near the hatch, John realized he had precious few seconds to decide on something to yell that wouldn't embarrass his race.

Kal jumped, yelling something that didn't translate. Seera followed as the crew chief gave the universal sign for 'Get the hell off my aircraft,' a demanding finger pointing out the gaping maw of the cabin.

"Ancestors guide my hand!" she called as she jumped, her outsized anti-materiel rifle barely clearing the top of the hatch even in its collapsed state.

It was John's turn. He wanted to scream 'Airborne!' at the top of his lungs. Instead, his feet thought it was a good time to catch on the door hinge. Seven practice jumps, always reminding himself of that damn hinge and not once hitting it. _Shit happens_.

"Oh shit!" he blurted out across the networked comms, diving head first out of the craft.

"Clumsy humans lead the way!" the marine behind him barked her war-cry. Laughter filled the comm network.

The zero-G jump from orbit had been the most relaxing part of the mission so far. The dark blue-green of Talis Fia was gorgeous from such an altitude, illuminated by the sun approaching from the east. As he made his descent into the thick ammonia atmosphere, the gentle rustling of wind vibrated his suit, filling his ears with the soft sounds of reentry despite his helmet's noise filters. The mass effect field packs had done their job, not a single marine needing to activate their reserve units.

As he neared the planet's surface, the true darkness of the world filled everything in his field of vision. The soldier could no longer tell up from down, left from right. Only the persistent wave of air told him he was even facing the right direction. His temporary comrades, no longer silhouetted by the bright horizon, were only identified by the light blue circles on his HUD. The drop zone was a small green speck in the inky black distance. John had expected this; the under-developed planet had little in the way of artificial ambient light and even if it did he doubted it would have penetrated the atmosphere very far.

In the deeper levels of the planet's incredibly thick atmosphere, the mass effect fields hardly needed to do anything at all to slow their drop. Terminal velocity was around forty meters per second with their bodies maneuvered for maximum drag. At around three hundred meters above ground level, the fields kicked in hard, slowing the platoon to a reasonable speed. The group finally slowed to less than a meter per second with a mere half-dozen meters to go.

The group all managed to land within fifty meters of the center of the drop zone, better than any of the practice jumps.

"Sitrep," Josim said in a curt monotone over the comm.

One by one, the marines added to the overall situation report, selecting a dial on their omni-tools to give a rough estimation of their health, provisions, equipment condition, and ammunition levels. John checked his water and food reserves, his weapons, ammunition and the like. When he was satisfied, he added his information to the whole. Shortly, Kal gave the report to the old veteran.

"Sir, we're green on everything. Good to go."

"Everyone dim your visors. Except for you, dull-eyes," said the platoon leader, "The pirate base is two kilometer south of here. Sergeant Vael, shadow us fifty meters to the right and just ahead."

"Yes, Sir," said their infiltrator, expanding her rifle to its full length. It must have been light or Seera had to be stronger than she looked. The weapon was almost as long as she was tall. With a deliberate touch, she slung it over her left shoulder and held it at the ready as she marched out. In a moment of humor, John was reminded of an old holo of his sister when was six or seven, playing rock-star with their father's sleek new guitar.

"I'm taking point. Move out," the platoon leader called to the rest of the group, using his typically emotionless monotone.

John didn't need to see Kal's eyes to know he was not happy about the commander choosing the most dangerous position on the long march. He also didn't need to see the platoon leader to know that arguing with him about it would be useless.

...

They traveled through the dense, ammonia excreting vegetation in what John would have called a platoon wedge, with one squad taking the lead and the other two behind it and to the left and right. Kal and John marched together in the center of the triangle formed by the squads. Josim, the platoon leader, blazed the trail at the very front and left most of the coordination to Kal, giving only the briefest of communications about distance or direction. Seera was somewhere far off in the distance, but kept in constant contact with John and Kal through their three-way private channel.

They passed the time while scanning for heat-silhouettes and mass effect field signatures by discussing different parts of their respective cultures. John had read up on the quarians before he was selected for this one-of-a-kind training opportunity, but what he was learning hear was invaluable. It might even be enough to get published at the war-college. He hoped the same was true for what these two were learning from him about humans.

Even without official diplomatic relations, there were always opportunities for joint field exercises. He was positive his selection had something to do with his pending lateral transfer to the Alliance Navy, combined with his mother's influence. Jane might have been the first choice, she was N7 as well, except that some would have thought her personality might be off-putting to this barely-contacted race. The truth was that John thought she might have actually fit better with this group than he did. _Oh well, her loss is my gain._

He also began to gain a new appreciation for what the quarians had to go through, wearing their fully-enclosed suits at all times. Although six atmospheres of pressure wasn't terribly high and could be adapted to easily, the air on this world was downright lethal. The limited field of vision, the weight of the armor in the relatively high-gravity environment, the moisture collectors and temperature conditioners that didn't quite do their jobs well enough... They all imposed a deep sympathy on the young captain for the plight of the quarian people. The only upside was the he couldn't feel it whenever a branch hit him in the face on the march.

"So, how long have you guys been Jarheads?" John asked without hesitation.

"What?" Kal replied incredulously as he turned to the human, "Since I was an infant. How long have you been a filthy stinking primate, you _bosh'tet?_"

"I... What?"

"You heard me. I answered your question, now you answer mine," Kal said, marching a little closer to John, "I'd beat the shit out of your racist ass right now if we didn't have a mission... You'll get yours soon enough, though."

"Kal, I can see him clear as day from here," interjected Seera, "Shall I take the shot?"

"Whoa, whoa, don't joke like that! What the hell did I say? What the fuck-" the human started before realizing his mistake, "_Jarhead_ is a colloquial human term for marine."

Kal checked his omni-tool and after a few seconds turned back to the soldier. "Sorry, Shepard, it's... Ah... There's a lot of racism directed at us, is all."

"I see. That's terrible."

"It's not that bad, but it isn't fun either. Other races see us as vagrants, beggars, and criminals...," Kal said, "we can get defensive pretty easily."

"_Darling_, we used to be so much more," added the infiltrator, "The asari may have been the first of the galactic civilizations, but we were the foremost among the galactic powers for centuries. Our technology, military prowess, and economic position were unparalleled. We had _nobility_, Shepard. Nobody remembers it."

"We had a council seat, even," Kal continued, "There used to be four of those bastards, not three. You know what happened to change all that, I'm sure. But they probably didn't tell you that the council had plenty of opportunities to help us in our struggle and refused. Then they threatened to send their turian varrens after us when we tried to colonize new worlds. Bomb us into oblivion. They wanted to keep us as nomads as punishment. Give them something to complain about."

John held a particularly large branch out the way. "That's disgusting, you guys. I'm sorry to hear that. Humans are a pretty diverse group, compared to the other races. We've had our own struggles with internal racism. Lots of terrible things have happened in our history, and I think most of us have learned from it."

"Glad to hear it, Shepard," Kal added, ducking beneath the branch that Shepard held, "Lots of races hate us as a matter of principle, the asari, turians, salarians. Others are indifferent, like the krogan, batarians, vorcha, and elcor. It'd be nice to have an ally for a change."

"Well, you've got at least one human."

"Thanks, Shepard," said Kal.

"Yes, that's quite a sentiment, _Darling_," supplied Seera, "Sorry to change the subject, gentlemen, but do either of you perhaps wonder why they were shooting at us while we were in orbit?"

"Maybe cause they're pirates and don't like us very much?," Kal chuckled.

"Of course, you _bosh'tet_, but shooting at us while in orbit?" Seera tried to clarify.

"She's right," John said, "There must be a hundred satellites in orbit, derelicts from the colonization boom, not to mention dozens of pirate vessels, both abandoned and still in use. Probably quite a few mining stations in orbit too. There are plenty of resources down here for prospecting if the orbital scans were accurate. Picking one ship out of all that clutter would have been impossible. Someone was shadowing us."

"Who?" asked Kal, almost tripping over a fallen tree as he turned to the soldier, "They would have had to beat us here. This mission was secret. No one knows where we are. We didn't even know ourselves until we popped out of the Xe Cha relay and we didn't know the planet until a couple hours ago."

"Kal, the admiralty board knew," said Seera.

Kal thought about that for an uncomfortable second. "There's no possible way that-"

Seera broke through on the general network, "Sir, I've got movement at thirty-three degrees, almost three hundred meters. Up to a dozen quarian-sized heat signatures, small arms, that's all I can tell at this distance."

"Understood," said the platoon leader, "make your way to their position and let me know when you have anything more. Sergeant Reegar, take third and the human, make your way to Sergeant Vael. First and second, we're assaulting from the left."

...

The battle was short, but intense. Seera got permission to engage almost as soon as she requested it. At least two armed krogan had been escorting a group of bound volus, and that was plenty of reason to shoot as far as the platoon leader was concerned. With the krogan neatly felled from well-placed headshots, most of the volus hit the ground and waited for rescue. The dozen or so vorcha in the escort fired wildly, hypervelocity rounds blossoming from the simple aliens in every direction at once, trying to find the source of the high-caliber death. Kal had ordered his team to fire over the heads of the vorcha, so as not to endanger the volus, and suppress them while Seera picked them off one at a time.

John followed their lead with his M-7 and the tactic worked better than he could have hoped. By the time Josim assaulted through the objective with first and second squads, there remained only a handful of survivors to provide meaningful resistance. Each vorcha received an additional two head wounds, those that still had heads anyway, as the marines crossed over the kill-zone to their limit of advance. Not one single quarian suffered injury in the sortie.

In the aftermath, it was discovered that the enemy were a group of Bloodpack mercenaries, either they were the pirates themselves or they had been hired by the pirates. In either case, that meant a far better equipped force than the platoon had been anticipating and planned for. The terrified volus were gathered up and questioned by the platoon leader and Kal, then released to the rear after promising not to breath a word of the Migrant Fleet presence on Talis Fia.

One of the retreating volus turned to John as he passed.

"Earth-clan?"

"Yeah?" replied the soldier.

"Ah _hsst_ good. We saw the fingers and the pair of eyes and thought _hsst_ you were asari. We forgot that your kind _hsst_ also has five fingers."

"I'd make a pretty ugly asari," John said, smirking, "Why does it matter what I am?"

"Very bulky, even in armor, much taller than normal, _hsst_ yes you would be ugly for an asari." The volus eyed the human up and down like a piece of meat before continuing, "I guess that is because you are male_ hsst_. Something that the Earth-clan and these clanless share_ hsst_ is similar differences in your genders."

John tried to keep his voice neutral. "What did you call them?"

"Ah, well_ hsst_, you see_ hsst_, they have had no clan_ hsst_, err, planet, for three centuries. They are therefore_ hsst_ clanless. They're just _hsst_ suit-rats. You and I are better than them_ hsst_." the volus patiently explained to the large, looming, and suddenly very unhappy member of an alien race that he realized he knew nothing about.

"Please, don't _ever_ call them clanless or suit-rats again or I will destroy you, understand?" John took deep breaths, trying not to let the stress of combat influence his temper. Despite the dense atmosphere of this world, volus suits maintained a pressure ten times greater than ambient. He tried not to think about what pooping them might be like.

"Of course, I apologize," The volus held up both hands in a gesture that meant forgiveness, "I need to tell you that we withheld information, not wanting to upset someone we thought was an asari. There are Eclipse mercenaries here too. Mostly asari, some salarian. Please be careful."

"Got it, thank you," John turned from the volus and opened a channel to Kal, "It seems there are Eclipse mercs here too."

"The volus told you, but not us?" asked the platoon sergeant, walking over to the human soldier.

"Yeah. He thought I was asari at first, only decided to tell me when he realized I was human. There might be other reasons..."

"Right," said Kal, glancing at the retreating little beings. Perhaps he had made a mistake in convincing the platoon leader not to kill them all for the sake of operational secrecy. "I'll tell the LT. This is bad. It means that we're up against someone with enough cash to hire both Eclipse and the Bloodpack. And for what? Volus slaves? Yeah right. I can't imagine anyone needing an accountant bad enough to steal one."

...

They had been side-tracked by the ambush on the Bloodpack slave-raiding team, but the mission continued in short order. They marched through the strange and beautiful forest, still in total darkness. With luck, dawn wouldn't find them until long after the enemy lay dead. Orbital reconnaissance had pinpointed the location and size of the base, and using that, the platoon was able to gauge likely resistance. It was nothing they couldn't handle, but the added presence of asari biotics would complicate things.

"So, do you guys have biotic individuals?" John asked.

"Yes, three," replied Seera.

"Three?"

"That's right, Shepard," agreed Kal, "Three."

"We used to have hundreds of thousands, _Darling_, back on the homeworld, but these days we can't afford to expose anyone to element zero like that. Accidental exposures don't work either. A core breach on a ship usually involves a very large explosion."

Kal nodded, adding, "A couple decades back we had a cruiser with a small leak in eezo storage. Somehow the stuff got atomized and circulated. That's how we got the three we have. I heard Admiral Xen's a fourth though."

"Don't be daft, Kal," Seera said through the comm, "do you believe everything you hear about the noble clans? Or is it just her?"

"All of the above. Present company excepted. You're only half a Xen anyway."

The conversation grew silent for a few minutes as the group marched onward. John opened a private channel to Kal.

"So, are you and Seera together?" he asked.

Kal was taken aback for a moment. He turned to find the human's eyes meeting his. "No, Shepard not at all. Are you, uh, interested in courting her?"

"I don't know. Maybe." John shrugged to himself, "I just wanted to know if she was involved with anyone before I even considered it. Is there a taboo of some kind?"

"She's single, that's for sure, and there's no taboo at all. You just won't see many quarians in mixed relationships because most of the other species consider us untouchable," Kal said.

"I definitely disagree with that...," John muttered, admiring the backside of a female marine just in front of him.

"That, and we don't often stray far from the fleet," Kal paused to consider something. He rubbed a finger and thumb under his vocalizer as if stroking a beard, "I think you should go for it. You shouldn't have too much difficulty in getting a job in the Fleet. Maybe even as a Farseeker."

"What? I mean, do you guys not do long distance relationships? Or you know, just have fun? Casual-like?" John was beginning to feel intimidated. Then again, Kal could just be putting him on.

"Sure we do," Kal nodded, "but then we get over it and want to settle down. That's where Seera's at right now."

"Oh. Is she old?" John asked cautiously.

"Twenty-six. A year younger than you, I believe. I feel ya though. I wasn't ready or receptive to bonding then and I'm still not." Kal looked wistful as he spoke. "But some of us mature faster than others. Some _never_ want anything more than a bondmate and some of us never want to stop _having fun_. It all depends."

"It's not that I don't want to get married or anything, it's just that I wouldn't know if she's the right one. It would have to start out casually dating, maybe fooling around for a while and then we go from there."

"Ah, I understand that too, human. I think like most races you guys can never really sure how you feel about each other. It takes lots a lot to overcome that uncertainty. Not knowing whether your bond will work out and stuff. Under that kind of pressure, I'd _never_ get bonded," Kal shook his head and looked to the ground, "I don't know how you ever start families. Kinda sucks for you guys."

"We... Wait, you know whether your marriage is going to work out _before you even get married?_"

"Well, when you put it like that, it-"

Then everything went dark.

...

Shepard found himself on his back next to Kal and nowhere near the other squads. Gunfire chattered in the distance, mostly small arms, but some heavy fire as well. The platoon hadn't brought any heavy weapons. _It's still night_, John thought, _haven't been out that-_

"Kal'Reegar!" Seera yelled through their three-way channel. _BLAM!_ Her weapon sounded no quieter over the comm than she did. "_**Status now**__!_" _BLAM! _"Where the bloody _fre'eg_ are you?!" _BLAM!_

"Seera, I'm with him now," John said. He wanted to check over Kal with hands first, look for any blood or dampness, then do a deeper scan with his omni-tool, but something was wrong. His hands wouldn't work. He managed to sneak a glance at the quarian's glowing orange tool; it had automatically run a full scan when it detected that its user had been knocked out cold. "His vitals are good, no ruptures-"

"_Det kazuat_, mercs," Kal managed to utter, trying to roll over and get to his feet, "What happened?"

"They had a forward element under a large, fully powered tactical cloak," Seera supplied, "Those bitches targeted you two first. Must have thought you were our leaders," _BLAM!_ "they were half right. You were both hit with biotic slam so hard that I think I felt it from here." _BLAM!_ "LT finished that asari rubbish off and pressed the assault at a full charge to the stronghold. I'm on the outskirts covering them."

"Any other casualties?" Kal asked, still sounding woozy but furiously rubbing at his faceplate. On a private channel to the human he said, "I can't see anything, Shepard. I thought it was just really dark out, or maybe my visor was scuffed, but I think it's a concussion. I'm blind."

"Four dead and two others wounded in the ambush that got you. Eight, no nine, sorry ten," _BLAM!_ "killed in the assault on the base. Don't know how many wounded."

"This is getting bad. Alright, Shepard, help me up. We've got to get over there, then."

"_Der'vak_, no!" Seera commanded, "Something's not right. I can tell you aren't fit to fight from here, Kal. You listen to me Shepard, you keep him there and guard our rear until he's ready, understand?"

"Sure thing," John said into the comm. He definitely wasn't going to take Kal into combat like this, but he had to at least get him to some cover. He turned back to his private channel with Kal, "Just grab my arm. It's right in front of you. I'll lead you to some cover."

"Grab your arm? I told you Shepard I can't see anything. You grab _my_ arm and pull me up."

"I can't Kal," John turned away from the quarian and shook his head, "I can't grab anything anymore."

"Shit, no," Kal's groping finally produced a result. His three strong fingers found little more than useless globs of meat. There were still a few fingers attached, but the human's hands felt like a pair of asari-made leather coin purses filled with _ual_ jelly and crushed bits of gravel. The human's suit's tourniquets and nerve-blocks seemed to be holding, Kal noticed. They would stem the blood loss, prevent ammonia contamination, and block what must be some pretty severe pain signals. "You, uh, landed on your hands, I guess."

"Yeah," the human agreed, "right onto a rock, most likely." Kal slid his hand down to John's forearm and gave it a tight squeeze. Pulling the quarian up, the soldier eyed the marine for signs of injury. "Well, you don't look dazed anymore, so let's get over there and help out."

"Sounds great, Shepard. Lead the way."

...

"_Keelah_, dear Ancestors, no! John, I will vivisect you for this... As soon as we get out of here."

"No, you won't either, Seera," Kal reprimanded her with a firm poke in the spine while she lay prone and looking for targets. "I told him to do this, and we're both just fine." Kal pulled out his squad automatic weapon and expanded it, setting it in position next to Jade visored quarian. John adjusted with a foot so it wasn't pointing directly at the woman.

"You're really are crazy, aren't you? Both of you. You're blind, and the primate has no hands!" _BLAM!_ "What do you expect to accomplish?"

"Seera, we can do this," John said calmly, "I'm going to find targets and tell Kal where to shoot. He's going to move the weapon and pull the trigger."

Seera responded to the human with a low growl before turning to the platoon sergeant, "Have you heard from the platoon leader yet?"

"No, not at all. What about you?" asked Kal.

"A little left, start shooting," interjected Shepard. Rounds poured out of the weapon in a stream.

"No, I would have told you already if I had." _BLAM!_ "Do you think...?"

"Up, left," interrupted John, "Keep shooting. Got some vorcha running at us now."

"Yeah, probably," Kal sighed, "It must have been his time." _BLAM!_

"Bring it right, slowly. We can cut them off at the knees," said Shepard, "Good shot on that salarian."

"Thank you, _Darling_."

"All personnel, this is Reegar," he said across the network, "fall back three hundred meters and then head to the next furthest rally point. I'm sending the location to your HUDs now. Please confirm."

...

Three hours had passed since the stand off began. Kal called for close air support shortly after he had decided to pull the plug on the mission, but the one attack craft the cruiser had lay in pieces awaiting repairs. There was no word when it would be up again.

The base must have been a heck of a lot larger than anyone had been able to tell from orbit. There seemed to be no end to the Bloodpack and Eclipse reinforcements, and the countless numbers of drones the quarians launched had told them that they weren't getting re-supplied from outside. That meant that the base had to be deep. Deep and huge. It was also unlikely that there was any way out other than the obvious, as the cruiser still reported no activity anywhere else on the surface of the planet.

On the plus side, there were actually fifteen survivors of that suicidal debacle, the charge that the lieutenant had lead into the compound. They were mostly injured, but their prognosis was good, provided they could be medivac'd some time soon.

The down side was that as long as there were mercenaries with any serious firepower, the marines were stuck. No unarmed transport could ever make it to an LZ that hot. Time was not on their side, and it would be another hour and a half before the evac team reached the bulk of the marines by foot. At some point, John and his two new quarian friends would have to withdraw and meet up with them if they expected to make it out. Right now that did not seem likely.

While the mercenaries probably had an entire underground base of supplies to work with, the marines were limited to what they carried on their backs. Eventually they would be worn down, but as long as John and company could cover the retreat it wouldn't be a total loss. This was a repeat of Elysium as far as John was concerned. He doubted it would end as happily. _I'm sorry Jane. Please don't let this push you further down the pit. You know this is what we do, you knew it was going to end like this eventually._

Kal, John, and Seera did what they could to keep the hordes at bay and whittle down the enemy. The rest of the marines treated their injuries and waited at the rally-point for evac.

"Shit Kal, they're coming again!" called John, "Two krogan charging! A little right and up!"

"No good, gun's too hot," Kal said, removing a canister from his suit and opening it, "pour this on the barrel!"

John did as he was told, sending plumes of steam from the weapon. "Done! Shoot!" Kal laid into the trigger, gunning down the krogan as Seera shot another salarian and an asari. The screams told John that it would be a slow death for the blue-skinned woman. "What was in that container?"

"Piss. You better get yours out too."

"I... Oh, boy," John sighed to himself, "there's more coming. A little up, then sweep left to right, about a twenty degree arc."

"You don't have a liquid waste canister, do you, _Darling_?" asked Seera. John shook his head. The infiltrator contnued, "No reason you should, for you it wouldn't be hazardous to use nature as a toilet. Please, direct Kal's aiming. I will unseal your armor and direct yours."

...

_"Warlord Five, this is _Culz'iilm _One, how copy?"_

"This is Warlord Five, please tell me this is who I think it is, over," John heard Kal say over the network.

"_Roger that, Five, this is your close air support. Starting a gun-run on objective _Tar'ental_, ETA thirty seconds. Be advised, we have your position as danger close. Please confirm._"

"That's affirmative, _Culz'iilm _One_._ We won't make it out of here in time," Kal shook his head as if the pilot could see his disappointment, "We're a hundred and fifty meters north of the objective. You should see our IR markers. Please be careful, over."

"_Roger that. I see you. Stand by._"

Kal kept firing and turned to his comrades. "We have CAS coming in for a gun-run. Fifteen seconds. Keep your heads down."

A few seconds later, thousands upon thousands of bright orange fountains bloomed into existence from all around and inside the pirate base. The light was blinding. An instant later, John's suit cancelled out what would have been a deafening roar. The attack craft passed low overhead, skimming the treetops at twice the speed of sound.

"_Warlord this is _Culz'iilm_, everything okay down there?_"

"Yeah, we're good," said Kal over the network, "stand by for damage report."

Kal turned expectantly to Seera, knowing she had been listening to the conversation, waiting for her to let him know the condition of the enemy. He heard nothing.

"Seera?" Kal asked.

"Shit, Kal, she isn't moving," John said, scrambling low over the rocky ground to her position to check on her. He noticed a trickle of red blood coming from where her temple would be under her helmet._ Not good. This is very not good._

He gently nudged her _realk_ aside with his elbow and confirmed his suspicions. Her suit had been ruptured at her helmet and she lay unconscious. A large piece of strangely shaped metal debris lay next to the side of her head. Checking her omni-tool, he noticed that her vitals were still good, and what he assumed were antibiotics were now coursing through her veins. He lowered his head next to hers and checked through her scope, careful not to jar the prone quarian.

"Looks like the run was successful, Kal," John said somberly, "The place is in ruins, nothing's moving. Seera's out cold, suit ruptured at the helmet. Vitals good, but we need to get her out of here."

"Okay, Shepard, we'll make it happen," Kal turned to his omni-tool, "_Culz'iilm_, the objective is totally clear, and I was wrong, we're not okay. One down, urgent surgical, we need a litter. You know the rest."

"_Good copy, Warlord. We have three transports inbound for the rally-point. We're diverting one to you now. _Culz'iilm _out."_

...

The transport had been banking sharply to dodge incoming fire. Several of the orbiting pirate craft, or mercenary craft, had moved to intercept the cruiser and its transports. At one point the craft's movements were so severe that Seera's gurney jumped off the floor of the transport a few inches and slammed back down. The infiltrator stirred and Kal looked especially worried for some reason.

"What?" asked John, "She coming around. Vitals are fine. That's a good thing, right?"

"No, John it isn't," Kal turned to the crew chief, who looked just as worried as Kal if his body language was anything to go by, "Is there a clean room aboard this transport?"

"No, Sergeant, there isn't," the chief shook his head, "We're decontaminating the cabin in preparation for docking, but it's not a true clean room. The closest one is aboard the ship. Our ETA is forty-five seconds. We'll get her there as soon as we dock."

"Alright," said Kal. Seera stirred again and the platoon sergeant gently rubbed her sternum. "Shepard, normally we'd put her under again in a situation like this, but the medics told me her suit's auto-injectors are damaged. They also used the last of their supply on the other marines. Please help me hold her down."

John nodded without understanding. Now wasn't the time or place to question the veteran marine's judgment. He did as he was told.

The vessel rocked again as it docked with the cruiser, and that was enough to wake the young woman. In an instant she was up, screaming and hissing. John and Kal both held her down as best they could. Though stabilized in a mass effect field, she was in serious danger of striking her head on something and doing further damage.

"Chief, guide the captain to the clean room, I'll follow behind." Kal called in the direction where he thought the crew chief stood.

"Yes, Sergeant," he said. The doors opened and he turned to John, "This way, Sir."

John used his elbows to guide the gurney after the quarian while holding down the arms of the hissing and growling infiltrator as best he could. Kal followed along on top of the woman's legs, holding them down with all his weight.

"Kal, I assume you know what's going on here," John grunted through gritted teeth, "So what's the plan?"

"Well, the med bay is out of drugs," Kal sighed "That means they'll knock her out by stopping her heart, then hope it restarts. To be fair, there's no reason it shouldn't, but I won't risk it. I'm gonna get her to a clean room and try something different. I have a hunch."

Quarian passerby cleared away from the approaching marines, each stepping back to avoid the obvious emergency. They arrived at the clean room and the door hissed open. John went in first and cast an inquisitive glance at the marine.

"I can't see you Shepard, but I assume you want know what to do now. On three, you get out and close the door behind you. Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Three."

Shepard released the woman and ran for the door as fast as he could, slapping the haptic interface with his mutilated hand on his way out. He had to trust that Kal knew what he was doing, but it didn't sit well with the human. The platoon sergeant was totally blind and locked in a small room with a violent, crazy, and enraged young woman. John didn't know much about the differences between quarian sexes, but it didn't seem that the males were much tougher than the females, especially if the Seera knew how to kick with those legs of hers.

The door closed and he could hear the woman screeching at the top of her lungs as soon as he left. The soldier resisted the urge to storm the room and lend a hand to his friend. After a few seconds, the screams and clawing sounds died down, replaced by a loud and long growling and punctuated by hisses. Gradually, those too quieted.

After a few minutes of silence, John commed the veteran marine, "Are you alright, buddy?"

A low whisper greeted the human, "Yeah, I was right. Everything is fine here. I'll... I'll be out in the morning."

...

"Everything okay, Kal? How did you get her to calm down?" The marine pulled up a chair next to where John sat typing up his report for the UNAS and the Alliance with a stylus wedged into a wrist-band. His hands had to be completely amputated last night. The hours spent under his suit's internal tourniquets left no alternative.

"I had to get her mask off... In Seera's, uh, confused state, her own mask was scaring her. I also had to take mine off so that didn't spook her either. Now she's just fine, Shepard. Seera's awake and enjoying breakfast. She'll be getting light duty for a while, but there won't be any lasting effects."

"And you?"

"Not bad. My vision's starting to come back. Just a little bruise on my brain. Docs say I'll be good as new in a week. How're the hands? Err, stumps? And how'd you sleep?"

"Fine, a little cramped. Being Army, I'm used to open skies. More comfortable than I expected though. They'll grow me some new hands or give me cybernetic ones. I'm not worried about them at the moment."

"Glad to hear it. You know, that base we hit... Command wanted me to tell you what we found there. It was Geth parts. Lots of them. Mostly in small pieces and fragments after we hit, but it's definitely Geth." Kal reached into a suit pocket and handed the human a fragment of debris, "They wanted me to give you this."

The quarian placed the a piece of debris in front of the human, unlike anything he'd seen before. John eyed it with caution.

"Oh, and the three of us are up for the Heart of _Kaeli'steiz_ medal."

**Please review the heck out of this. Did you like this little window into MShep's history? Maybe one for Jane and Torfan? Let me know.**


	7. Schism

**Bioware owns the characters and everything else you can find in the Mass Effect Wiki. Calinstel owns 99.5% of the ideas behind the Quarians that I'm using. The rest is mine.**

**Please Fav and Follow if you like this. They send you e-mails whenever I update. **

Chapter 7: Schism

John tenderly rubbed the small piece of cloth between a thumb and forefinger. From end to end, it could stretch from the tip of a thumb to its base and it was just about as wide. In the center of the blue fabric was a stylized image of a shield and behind that, a sword. Emblazoned on the front of the shield lay a simple white star, larger than the numerous little stars in the blue field surrounding it.

The rocking motions of the transatmospheric craft, caused by shifting air currents, forced his shoulders into his team-mates to his left and right. This was the second time he'd been crammed inside a quarian troop-transport. Kal and Seera may be with him again, but that's where the similarities ended, he hoped. He had every reason in the galaxy to believe that this time things would go better. He figured that having both hands replaced three times already was plenty for one person. Idly he checked his wrists as he waited for the short flight to end. The scars were still there. Slim white lines traced their way across the front of his wrists and around their backs, as if he had tried to kill himself and gone about in completely the wrong way.

This mission would be different, he was sure. This time Kal was in charge, and John was there with his people.

"What's that you got there, bro?" asked Jane, leaning into her brother from his left side.

"The Heart of _Kaeli'steiz_ I earned with Kal and Seera," he replied quietly, his thoughts still in the past. The memories still felt so fresh. Wounds that never healed quite right...

"Oh, that's what it looks like? That's a just a ribbon," she almost scoffed, "There's not even a medal to go with it?"

"There used to be," supplied Kal, gruff and not in the least bit intimidated by Shepard's sister, "Now we have limited resources. We can't attach something as valuable as metal to every piece of chest-candy like you guys can."

"Yes," added Seera, "they'll be metal again one day." She fixed her eyes on her lieutenant, "Of that I am certain."

Jane shook her head in a mixture of awe and jealousy at her brother's accomplishment, "I still can't believe you've earned the highest possible award for two separate species. Why don't you just cure the genophage while you're at it and make it a hat-trick?"

The transport jostled its occupants as it passed through a particularly nasty bout of turbulence. John gave his sister a grim smile as he folded the strip up and put it back into an armor-pocket.

...

No sooner had the contingent of scientists, marines, and motley assortment do-gooders with questionable ties disembarked the small transport than they were greeted with the first surprise of the day. John had barely finished retrieving his rucksack from the cargo hold and slinging it over his shoulder when his sister approached.

"Hey, Nee, I just got a call from Miranda," Jane said, "She needs me to oversee a few things back on the ship. I think I ought to be there anyway, in case the geth do decide to pay us a visit."

John understood immediately. The captain's place was aboard her ship, not playing in the mud with the grunts. As much as his sister liked to be there on the ground, she must have understood that as well. Maybe with the _Normandy_ safely docked somewhere she could afford to go on a mission, but not when it orbited high above an enemy world in a demilitarized war-zone. After all, these missions were his job anyway, not hers.

"No worries, Sis," he said, making sure his weapons were still accessible under the pack, "get back there as soon as you can. We'll be fine without you. I'll check in as soon as I'm back on the ship and this is all over and done with."

"Okay, Nee. Please be careful. They're still unloading gear," Jane motioned back to the transport with a thumb, "so I'll be here for a little while if you need me, before they bring me back to the base-camp. I think I'll go talk to Garrus. Maybe you should talk to Tali?"

"Noticed that too? Yeah, maybe I should," John said. The twins exchanged a brief hug before parting ways.

...

"These quarians look pretty tough," Jane called out to Garrus as he cleaned a few parts of his sniper rifle, "I hope maybe we can convince a few more than just Tali to hang around after this mission is over. I think Kal and the one that's always hanging around him would be good additions. Did you see the size of her rifle? Does it make you feel a little... inadequate? Hers is _a lot_ bigger," Jane chuckled, her hand going to the turian's back.

"Mine is a precision tool, hers is an anti-materiel rifle, a miniature cannon," replied Garrus in all seriousness, "And it's all about how you use it anyway. There's no way she's as good a shot as me."

"Not the size of the boat, just the motion of the ocean?" Jane laughed again, red hair falling across her face before she shifted it behind her ears. Teasing was way too easy with Garrus, "Yeah, right, that's what they all say. Your _jealous_," she added in a taunting tone.

"Hmm. Say what you want, but you know I'm right," Garrus decided to change the subject, "It feels good to be back with the old crew, fighting the good fight. I heard from Jake that you're heading back to the ship. I was hoping that I'd get a chance to finally go into combat with you again... It's been two years, after all."

"Jake? You mean Jacob commed you about that?" she asked, arms crossing her chest.

"Yeah, he did. Came up when we were talking football," he replied, beginning to reassemble his weapon.

"Well, It's only been two days since we fought together, Garrus," she said defiantly, resolving to have a little chat with mister Taylor about discussing her business, "and besides, we don't know anything is going to happen here. This is one of a hundred old quarian colony worlds. The geth don't patrol these places regularly."

"Yes, Shepard, trouble always seems to follow you and your brother wherever you go," Garrus smirked. He was right, of course. She intended to head back to the ship for that very reason, "And it's been two years since we fought together. Two days ago I thought I was fighting along side a semi-literate, albeit _very_ attractive, human weirdo."

Jane stuck a hip out to her side. "Well, now you're stuck with the real me and two out of three ain't bad."

"Yeah, two out of three isn't bad. Too bad you're not as pretty as she was," His girlfriend should know by now that teasing could go both ways, "I guess the helmet did a lot more for you than protect your face."

She playfully punched the turian while he held his hands up in mock surrender. Getting into a fighting stance, she shadow-boxed at his armor a bit before turning to walk away.

Garrus wasn't having any of it. He caught the human by her shoulder and spun her around to face him. "Going somewhere without saying goodbye?"

"Yes. I need to get back to my ship, the one I-"

Garrus pulled her in for a kiss, planting a brief but passionate one on her lips before releasing her. The human was caught completely by surprise.

"-command. Thanks, Garrus. Bye...," she said, letting her hips sway a little as she walked away from the turian. She didn't know if turian women did the same thing, or if he'd even understand the signal at all, but it made her feel good to do it.

"I love you too, by the way," he said, smirking as he ran through a functions check of his rifle.

"What?" asked the human turning back, pretending not to understand, "I couldn't hear you just now."

"I think you heard me just fine. And I heard you too," he said, smiling so wide that it looked as if his mandibles might fall off, "Back there on Omega, when you took your helmet off."

"Fuck you, Skull-Face," she replied, looking more embarrassed than upset.

"That's the plan, but only if you insist." Not even he thought his mandibles could go wider at that point.

As she turned to leave once again, Garrus heard a string of profanities followed by what he thought were some murmurs that yes, she was definitely going to insist.

...

It would be a few more minutes before the science teams were ready to head out to their respective research sites, plenty of time for John to talk with Tali. He'd find out what, if anything, was going on with her. Although the chances were good that if Jane had noticed something was up, then it was more than his imagination.

He strolled through the ruins of what used to be large military research complex, asking passerby what had become of the head of the science team. None seemed to know anything more than having seen her wandering about shortly after disembarking the transport. Knowing her, and her interest in pre-exile history, she could be anywhere.

But she'd always talked about how her people actually lived before the war, not how they worked. Where could she go around here to see that? There were no houses or residences of any kind to be found. The nearest settlement had to be a few kilometers from here, probably near the huge canyon in the distance if Edi's orbital scans were correct.

It had to be quite a view from here, though. One could almost certainly see the whole city from this distance.

...

Spread out all before Tali was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen, second only to when she laid eyes on John after his return. This was the first quarian _world_ she had ever set foot on. Ancestors willing, it wouldn't be the last. From where she stood under the shade of an awning, leaning on a rail overlooking a vast canyon, she could see an entire town below her. It hugged both sides of the river at the center of the canyon, spanning the length of the river as far as she could see in either direction. Bridges and causeways, some so small as to accommodate only a single quarian, some large enough to handle multiple heavy ground vehicles abreast, spanned the water every hundred meters or so. On the other side of the canyon from where she leaned, a vast expanse of forested plains reached the horizon. She could see why her Ancestors has chosen this world to colonize. The placid scene reminded her of the paintings and holos she had seen of the homeworld, with the exception that the town below her sat in total darkness.

Her HUD told her that someone was approaching from behind her. She didn't need to turn around to know who it was. The footfalls told her everything possible; she would have recognized them anywhere, under any conditions. She had spent two whole years listening to the footsteps, hoping they'd match the ones she now heard. Nervousness and adrenaline filled her veins.

He drew closer, coming up right next to her, leaning on the guardrail, taking in the idyllic landscape with his _inszel_.

John was quiet; this wasn't something Tali was used to. Normally he had some quip to make, something to say to make her feel at ease no matter the situation. For a month before Alchera it had always been something more, something that made her feel like she really belonged with him, something usually accompanied by a flirtatious touch or squeeze. Now though... Nothing.

She knew what this was about. At first, having John back had been wonderful and everything was right in the galaxy. Now though, her mind began taking her places that she'd rather not go. As a result, she'd been rather distant from the human since he landed. She'd been pushing him away. This was the result. _Girl, if you don't do something about this _now_, then everything you've ever hoped for will come crashing down... again. I have to talk to him. Or do I? Maybe I can just give him a hug and he'll forget all about the way I've been acting? Now that sounds like it just might work._

Tali turned to face the human next to her, one hand letting go of the guard rail to reach around the man so she could pull him in for a tight embrace.

"So, Tali, what's all this about?" the human asked without looking away from the scenery.

_Shit._ Caught, Tali could only stammer. "Wh- what?" She pulled away and started playing with her fingers about her waist. "What is what about? I... I mean nothing is wrong... If that's what you mean." She put on her best smile and looked up at her human.

"I never said I thought anything was wrong," John said, a wry smirk on his lips.

"Oh, neither did I!" Tali said, waiving a hand quickly in front of her, "I said _nothing_ was wrong," she became silent and slowly took a step closer to him, "I just wanted a hug..." Tali started twiddling her fingers again, looking at her toes as she did.

That was all the encouragement John needed. It felt good to have the old Tali back, the one who wasn't too scared or unwilling to even talk to him. He pulled the young woman into a tight embrace. She cooed approvingly.

"So nothing is wrong?" asked John, pulling away from her a fraction of an inch.

"Well..." Tali said, stepping back and averting her gaze. She started to play with her fingers some more before deciding she'd rather play with his.

"Weren't you telling me less than a week ago that quarian women are a lot more straight-forward than human women?" John pulled one of his hands away from hers and started rubbing her back. Tali kept looking down at his remaining hand while she stroked his fingers, so he gently tilted her chin to bring her face-to-face with him.

"No..." she corrected him, "I said 'we need to talk' means just that. That doesn't mean I can't be evasive if I want to be," she said with a tilted head.

"So you admit you're being evasive?" John's smirk turned to a full on smile.

"Um... More hugs?" Tali held her arms wide for the human, bright eyes looking up to his.

"Tali, you can't just hug your way out of talking to me," John said. He did his best to put on a frown, something made nearly impossible by how adorable this girl was. He was almost convinced that yes, she could in fact hug her way out of anything.

"Why not?" Tali crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked flustered.

"Tali..." John mirrored her pose.

"Fine. But please promise you won't get mad," she finally responded, looking dejected.

"I'll do no such thing, especially if it's something I should be getting mad about," John said. Tali looked to him with a mixture of worry and surprise, her arms falling to their sides. He continued, "But I will promise that no matter what you have to say, I'll still love you and we _will_ work through it."

"Okay Shepard. Good enough," she said. The use of his last name did not go unnoticed by the human. Tali's voice became soft and she started twiddling her fingers again. She was extremely nervous about what she was about to say. "I did some bad things when you... Well before- just before- you... You know..."

"Yeah, I know Tali, before I left you," he finished for her. Seeing how uncomfortable the ordeal of talking about this made her, he added, "Maybe we don't have to talk about this after all."

Tali chuckled. "Now you've got me started, you don't want me to finish? I think I'll be alright. This needs to be said... Might as well be now."

"Okay, if you're ready."

"Yes. I... Well... I beat the shit out of you, John," Tali said using the human expression. She turned away from him in shame, but continued, "What I did was horrifying. You didn't deserve that, no matter what. I should have known there was no way I could stop you and not even bothered. I should have hugged you and told you to be safe. I could have even taken off my mask. Let you see me. Kissed you with my own lips and let that be our last memory. Instead, my knee hitting your face became the last experience we each had of each other..." Her eyes started to water, but only slightly. She already relived the experience too many times to bring real tears.

John came from behind to hug her. He detected no surprise from the quarian when he wrapped his arms around her, only relief as she sunk into his chest. "That would have been nice, but all's forgiven. I did think about you out there; but only good things. Only about how much you cared for me. Please Tali, don't think about that anymore. We've got another opportunity here."

"There's more," she continued slowly and deliberately, leaning back against him even more and rubbing her _realk_ and helmet against the side of his head, "I almost murdered Doctor Chakwas, Engineer Adams, and several others in the escape pod. I was going to do it, I really was. Later I was a real varren to your mother for trying to help me." She started to pull away from his grasp, tried to run in shame. She needed to hide from his sight after the admissions, but found she couldn't. He wouldn't let go of her.

"What are you doing?" he asked, feeling her struggle against him.

"Trying to run and hide," she replied, still struggling, "I think there's a dark corner in that building over there." She nodded to a near by structure that must have been a warehouse in centuries past. She couldn't budge the human's much stronger arms by prying, but she was practically at the point of dragging him along with her.

"Not gonna happen, _inszel_," John said. At hearing the quarian term pass through his mouth for the first time in her life, Tali ceased all resistance and turned her head as best she could to look at him.

"What did you say?"

"I said it's not gonna happen. I'm not letting you go," John replied matter-of-factly.

"No, I mean what did you call me?"

"What? _Inszel_?" John said. Softly, he brought his lips to her right audio pick-up and asked, "Your my _inszel_, right?" before gently kissed her on the side of the visor.

"Yes, John'Shepard, yes. And I am yours," she sighed deeply. Turning in his arms to face him, she looked at him with all the love she could possibly convey in her eyes. "I think it's about time I explain about what it means to be bonded to a quarian."

John had been expecting a talk like this at some point. He had thought it might have happened sooner, maybe back at the start of their relationship, but then again he could see a certain logic in waiting until they were officially engaged. Whatever she had to say, it couldn't be too weird. It would probably shed some light on exactly why she felt it necessary to try murdering a small portion of his old crew, something he was more upset about than he cared to admit at the moment. He gave her another kiss on the visor, this time just above the vocalizer, where her lips could almost reach from the inside.

"I heard from Kal a while back that you all know whether or not your marriage is going to work out before you ever get married," John stated, but in a questioning tone.

"Well, yes, that's usually correct..." Tali said before hesitating. She looked away from him before speaking again, "It's true that when one quarian bonds- marries- another, we know it will work out because we have bonded. For life. We kind of, I dunno..." she struggled for a way to explain this very simple concept to the human. She gestured as is trying to conjure up the right words. "It's like a psychological addiction... But to a person. We get used to them, connect with them, and we really feel it when they're not around. Our brains even go through chemistry changes when we bond."

John nodded to himself. "I get that. I think we humans do something similar. Marriage is supposed to be for life. And we miss our families when we're away, and that releases stress hormones and stuff. I also think it's pretty true that married couples start acting alike over time."

"It's not the same, John. I think you're just trying to find something to add to the conversation," it was Tali's turn to smirk now.

"Fine, you caught me. But I still think it's pretty damn close."

"Let me finish, then tell me what you think," she said, "Humans get divorced all the time... Last I read it was over half the time. And that's if you bother to commit to a partner at all," Tali sounded really hopeless for the first time since John left her aboard the SR-1, "We're not designed to have _multiple partners_. Never have been. Call it a mix of biology and cultural reinforcement. So we have an instinctive drive- we fiercely protect the one we have. Like the way a human parent protects their child."

"So you think of me as a child?" John asked, laughing a little.

"No you _bosh'tet_, but the drive to protect you is on par with it, the same level of importance. Obviously, you're no child, on the outside anyway. I saw those toys you played with on the old ship-"

"Models, not toys. And I think a human mother would be just as likely to protect her husband as her kids."

"Really? I'm not even human and I know that's not true." Tali crossed her arms over her chest again.

"Fine, you might be right," John said. He took a minute to think to himself before continuing. Quarians were not human; he knew that there would be huge differences between the two races before he ever thought of involving himself with Tali. For that matter, none of the races were human except humans. For an unabashed xenophile like himself, he should be grateful he found an alien girl that was not only close enough to a human as to be attractive, but also one who wasn't going to try to eat him after mating. _Clingy beats cannibal- or krogan- any day of the week_.

"So," he continued, "how does this help explain the altercation you had with the old crew? And my mother?"

"Well," Tali said, licking her lips and swallowing hard, "you see, I was, well I wanted to... to take the escape pod I was in and rescue you. Garrus was suited, and I'm always suited, but the others in there with us were not. Doing something like that would be justifiable under quarian law." Tali grasped John's arms, pleading for understanding with her eyes, "It would be a bit extreme, and there would certainly be a civil lawsuit and compensation awarded, but it would be _technically_ justifiable as a kind of medical condition." She released him and sighed. "Of course, were that a quarian escape pod, the rest of the crew would have immediately subdued me as soon as it became clear that my _inszel_ was spaced."

"I see," John rubbed the back of his head and looked away. Tali squeezed his arms a little tighter. "And mom?" he asked.

"Oh, that had nothing to do with quarian instincts. She just pissed me off when she suggested I move on."

"Yeah, she pisses a lot of people off," John admitted.

"Are you maybe more, uh, instinctual than most quarians are? Or am I just that charming?" John smiled and turned back to the view. Tali joined him in taking it in. "Beautiful isn't it?" he said.

"Yeah, it is," she replied, looking at him. She turned back to the canyon beneath her and replied, "I, well, it's a combination of factors, I guess. I think I'm pretty far along with you in the bonding process, a lot further than anyone would have guessed. Plus I have only really known you for a few months- an intense, fulfilling, and magical few months- but that aggravates it. And I'm probably a lot more protective than most, yes. Daddy issues, I've been told..."

"Is that all?"

"And _yes_, you're especially charming," she said as she slapped him on the butt.

"You're worried that I might be unfaithful or could eventually want a divorce, aren't you?" John asked somberly.

"I am," Tali replied, just as somberly. John pulled her into a one-armed hug next to him. She leaned her head against his shoulder.

"I don't know what to tell you, except that that won't ever happen," John said honestly, "I know that's not enough. I wish I could say more, find a way to prove what I know is true. But, maybe it's enough for now?"

"Of course it is, John," she said, laughing a little, "I'm bonded to you, maybe not all the way, but more than a little. It would have to be something pretty devastating if it were going to come between us. I don't think some dreadful future possibilities rise to that level. Especially not from someone who manages to keep his word as well as you do. But it still scares me a lot."

"One day you'll know I'm not going anywhere," said John simply.

"I hope so," replied his _inszel_, "Here I am, worried that you weren't going to want to be my bondmate after hearing all this, and you question whether or not I want to be with you because of divorce. You're something else, John'Shepard... I take it the wedding is still on?" She said it with humor in her voice, but she was for more scared to ask than she let on.

"Of course it is. Do you still have the ring I gave you?"

"Yes!" she gently rubbed her callused sternum where she kept it. "It's right here under my suit."

John reached out and rubbed her suit, just over the ring. Not realizing it was a literal sore spot, he was not as gentle as she had been. The young woman flinched away involuntarily. "What was that about?" John asked before hazarding a guess, "That's not supposed to be kept there, is it?"

"No," replied Tali, "it isn't. Well, it is, but it's the wrong shape... The stone is too big and too angled. What's supposed to go there should be slightly slimmer, and much smoother."

"Take it out then," he said, concern in his voice.

"No! Absolutely not," she backed away, suddenly on the defensive, "Not unless I have something to put in its place, and I will not be the one to take it out. You will. There's a quarian equivalent of your engagement ring, but I've grown attached to yours."

"Maybe there's a way to incorporate the ring into the quarian, uh, ring," he said, taking a step closer to her, "I think it's about time I started researching quarian engagement and bonding customs."

"It's not a ring, really, more of a medallion. I'll send you all the info you need." Tali chuckled to herself, bringing the human in for a tight embrace and pressing her visor to his lips. "I'm so glad you're here with me."

...

"Contact!" Yelled a young corporal, "Sir, Geth dreadnaught on orbital approach, ETA ten minutes!" Kal saw the young man approaching a full sprint long before he heard him. Part of second squad, he hadn't been with the unit for any more than three weeks. He wore no combat patch, so this was probably his first time down range. That explained why he couldn't keep his cool. If Kal did his job right, hopefully he'd learn that skill one day.

"Damn, damn, and double damn," Kal swore silently to himself, "Why didn't we see it earlier, corporal?" he asked the young man.

"Both Haestrom and the Dholen relay are in orbital alignment," he explained, "We're only three tenths of an AU from the damn thing, Sir."

"_Fre'eg_. Seera," Kal turned to his ever-present _ra'estah_, "sound the general warning. Let me know when all the science teams are back."

"Done, warning's sent. What's the plan?" she asked, knowing her lieutenant would have an answer, "We aren't equipped to defend against a dreadnaught."

"If they wanted to bomb us to pieces, we'd already be dead." said Kal, swiftly marching to where his human friend stood, coordinating their joint efforts. Seera followed close behind. "We'd only know they were here by the explosions. That means they want answers, so they'll be landing troops. We can't evacuate; our transport doesn't have stealth. We'll have to dig in, unless..." He stopped in front of commander Shepard, guessing he caught the tail end of his conversation.

"Already on it, Kal," said John without looking up from his omni-tool, "We had a sensor buoy about a hundred klicks off the relay. I've called Jane and she'll get us out of here as soon as everyone's back. _Normandy_'s stealthed and in geosynchronous on the other side of the planet."

"What about some air support until we are all ready to evac?" asked Kal.

"Not gonna happen," he replied, shaking his head solemnly, "As soon as we light the place up, that dreadnaught would turn the Normandy to dust. Same thing would happen if we just park it and wait, one of the geth would just call for fire. Jane has to get in, get everyone loaded, and get out before they can react."

"Alright, that'll work," said Kal.

Just as he finished speaking, Seera caught Kal's attention, making no secret of her urgent need to speak with tje platoon leader. She pulled Kal aside, at a distance that she hoped was out of earshot of the human.

"We've got confirmation that all the teams are in," she spoke as low as possible given the general din of the ongoing withdrawal process, "but there's an issue. Guardian Six is not responding," John's attention drew immediately to the pair of quarians and away from his omni-tool, "She's inside an old bunker, heavily fortified against all kinds of EM interference. We tried the hard line, but she doesn't seem to have it working yet. I think we should send a fire-team over there, but they won't make it to the bunker and back by the time the geth arrive."

"Fine," said John, interrupting the marines with a hand held aloft, "I'll go with my people." He had already started checking over his weapons and equipment as he spoke.

"Are you sure you want to put your people in harms way like this, Shepard?" Kal asked. The human wasn't even paying attention; he actively barked orders into his omni-tool instead. "I guess that answers that," the quarian said to himself before turning to Seera, "You and I will go with them. Let the platoon know. Have him get all our people to the evac site."

"On it, Kal."

...

To John it had been only a few weeks since he'd last fought against the geth, his preferred enemy along with mechs. They were all little more than soulless constructs, as far as he was concerned, and he never felt bad about ending their existence. They didn't have families or friends who might cry themselves to sleep at night, wondering where they were and why they hadn't yet come home, all because they managed to be introduced with the wrong end of his rifle.

In that sense, he was the opposite of his sister. She preferred living victims, ones whom she could violently take from the galaxy. Victims who knew that their lives were about to end and could appreciate what that meant. Victims who could feel. To her, mechs and the geth weren't worth the trouble. Why bother killing something that wasn't even alive?

Having to fight in the shade certainly felt different, however. He chuckled to himself as he was reminded of something he learned in his military history classes, of the Spartan _Dienekes_ at the battle of Thermopylae. Losing his shields didn't seem nearly as bad as facing a hail of arrows.

John, Garrus, the professor, and the mercenary, along with Kal and his shadow, a title the ex-Spectre might one day call Seera to her face if he wasn't careful, had been fighting their way up to Tali's position for the last twenty minutes. Apparently she had managed to get a hard-line repaired in whatever room she found herself holed up in and sent a message to base camp. She had said she was okay for the moment. While certainly a relief, that was ten minutes ago and John was starting to get worried again. Hopefully, they'd find another working terminal somewhere between their current position and hers.

That would be step two, right after they found a way out of the room they were locked in.

"Shepard! John, is that you?"

For only a second, he thought he was hearing things. Tali's disembodied voice had called to him. Turning a full circle in the cramped room to find its source, John noticed everyone else on the team staring at a holo image projected from the terminal behind him.

"It's definitely me. Is that you?" he asked, knowing full well it was.

"Yes!" she replied, indignant, "I'm not complaining, but you show up at the strangest times..."

"Glad to see you too," he said with a grin.

"Thanks for coming John," she breathed a sigh of relief. She'd known he'd come for her, he always did, but it felt good to it with her own eyes. "It means everything to me to hear your voice."

"We're coming to get you. If you're safe, stay put," John said, before adding hesitantly, "_Are_ you safe?"

"Yes," she replied, "I've got the data I need and I'm safe for now, but I've got a lot of geth outside." Although he probably knew where she was already, she added, "I'm in the old military observatory... It's hardened against everything short of orbital bombardment. From where you are, it's through the door and across the field."

"Got it, we're on our way," he said. Turning to leave, then realizing he had no place to go with a locked door, he asked, "It looks like somebody sealed the door against the geth when they evacuated. The console is damaged. Can you get it open on your end?"

"Let me see..." Tali took a few seconds to respond, her fingers dancing across an interface of some kind, "Yes, I can do it. Here. Should be unlocked now."

"Thanks," he said, "See you in a bit."

...

Professor Mordin felt confused, something he was not used to. While abnormal, the sentiment was hardly cause for alarm. Confusion meant a problem, and problems could be solved. They simply needed to be worked through, preferably aloud.

To that end, he voiced this particular issue, "Geth forces going to significant trouble to terminate Lieutenant Zorah. Not normal for them. Not tactically sound to devote such resources, including a colossus, to one individual." Mordin looked to John to make sure the human followed his reasoning.

John sensed a pause in one of the talkative salarian's monologues, and glanced over from where he took cover to see if he needed to give a response. A human might have widened their eyes or given some other subtle facial signal in anticipation of an answer. A turian, or a quarian using their eyes, would have done the same. Even another salarian would have been easier to read, but not the professor. A siege pulse passing overhead rendered his dilemma moot as both he and the professor recoiled away from flying rubble.

After dusting himself off and leaning back against the cover, Mordin continued, "Operating outside military parameters implies nonstandard directives, directives means a higher echelon of command giving direction. Geth are consensus driven, no higher authority from within, must be an external entity like Saren. Saren worked for Reapers; stands to reason, therefore, that geth still do. Therefore, the logical conclusion is that the Reapers want Lieutenant Zorah dead."

John definitely heard that part.

He shifted his gaze from his point of aim just below the glowing eye of the giant geth construct to regard the professor. This was something he hadn't considered, but it made sense. The bulk of the quarian force was a hundred kilometers to the east, as was their small transport craft, but they weren't even moving in that direction. They focused their entire attention on breaking into the room that held Tali as well as stopping anyone from trying to rescue her.

She happened to be the daughter of one of the admiralty board, and almost a daughter to another member of the board. A third admiral was a good friend of the family and like an uncle to the young woman. If the reapers were calling the shots, did that mean that they were desperate enough to resort to what amounted to a terrorist tactic? Perhaps, if it meant that the quarians would be tied up with the Geth when the Reapers came.

But the Reapers didn't need to goad the Fleet into action. If the Fleet ever surfaced against them, they needed only to call in geth reinforcements. If the quarians decided not to oppose them, so much the better, and _that_ was more likely than anything else. _Hell... No one wants to get involved. At this stage in the game no one even believes they even exist, except-_

"Oh, shit. This is my fault," said John just after putting his final grenade into face of the beast. Luckily, it didn't look like he would need any more grenades because that shot amounted to the final straw that broke it's back. The colossus crumpled into a heap on the stone floor near the blast door. The human closed his eyes and clenched his fists.

"It is possible, yes," agreed Mordin in the most insensitive way imaginable, "You and your sister killed Sovereign. You two represent a real threat to them. Capable of marshaling the galaxy against an invasion. Likely trying to either demoralize you or directly hinder your efforts."

It seemed the Reapers were making this personal. John felt his blood boiling, his body filling with a rage unlike anything he'd ever felt before. Combat had never really been this way. He did what he had to do to complete the mission, nothing more. If people got hurt, then so be it. Now, he just wanted every single one of these bastards, the collectors, the geth, and the reapers, to suffer and die. And if they ever did manage to succeed? To take Tali away from him? Let the whole uncaring, oblivious galaxy burn. He wondered if this was how Jane had felt after what happened to him, and after what happened to Dad.

The blue aura of his nascent biotics flared so brightly that he was able to see its effects shimmering off his body even in the tunnel-vision of combat. Going after his fiancé might have been an attempt to get him to loose his cool and do something stupid. If so, it worked. John got out of cover, intent on jumping the barrier and storming the blast door.

A quarian hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back behind the barrier. "Shepard!" yelled Kal, "Stop. That thing is repairing itself. I've seen this before. It's almost done. You wouldn't have made it halfway up the center before it lit you up."

A siege pulse slammed into the barrier in front of the group, its residual energy enough to cause the hair on John's arms to stand on end. More geth began swarming the area, renewing their efforts to crack open the blast door. The ex-Spectre swore to himself. He needed a moment to calm down and think.

"I know you're pissed, Shepard," said Kal, placing his hand on the human's shoulder, "and you have every right to be, but get your head together. If they're doing this, then that means they're scared. They're not omnipotent after all. They can de beaten."

"Sure, sure Kal, I know," he replied. He took a moment to peak over the cover and get the layout of the courtyard they found themselves in. "Looks like we don't have a shot when it goes into self-repair mode. We'll have to pay that thing a visit. Garrus?"

"Yeah, buddy?" asked the turian.

"Stay here, suppress the right approach with Seera," he said, glancing to the woman. She nodded in assent.

"Sounds good," replied Garrus. He turned to the quarian marksman, "Hit the primes with that thing," he pointed to her monstrous rifle, "and I'll take out the little ones."

"Of course," said Seera, tilting her head and smiling with her eyes. In a flash, she disappeared under her tactical cloak, presumably scampering off to a better firing position.

"Kal," said John, his expression turning serious, "I need you and Zaeed to stay here and give Mordin and I some cover fire against that colossus. When we make our way up to it, you two can blast that thing to hell. We'll take it from there." Mordin and Zaeed nodded, but Kal looked like he was scowling under his visor. If being blinded wasn't enough to keep the quarian out of a fight four years ago, then one human certainly wasn't going to be enough now. But it had to be this way and he hoped the platoon leader understood that.

"_Fre'eg_ that, Shepard," Kal shook a finger at the human, "She's one of my people, and you know damn well she's my _Dram'zelt din relai_. Which reminds me, we need to have a conversation about one or two things when we're done here. Bottom line, I'm going up there."

"I know, I know all that, but this is the only way," the human explained patiently, "We need the snipers here. That's Garrus and Seera. Mordin can't hit anything past fifty meters, no offense-"

"None taken," said the salarian.

"-so he's going. That leaves you, Zaeed, and me. Two people stay here to keep that thing occupied. You and him." John hated having to explain his command decisions. This time it was necessary though. He wasn't in command here, not really.

"No," said Kal, defiance in his voice, "The amphibian and I'll go get her. You and the other human can cover us. Both of you know how to use the rocket launcher."

It may be selfish, but John wasn't about to let the quarian steal his moment of glory. Kal probably felt the same way. Each plan would work... There weren't any obvious benefits or draw backs to either one.

"Oi!" yelled Zaeed. Both arguing men turned to the mercenary. "You two gits don't think I need someone else to help me cover some giant stupid robot llama, do ya? Your call, boss, but I can do 'er alone."

"Works for me," replied the ex-Spectre.

"Me too," added Kal, handing his rocket launcher to Zaeed.

"Good," said the mercenary, "Everybody ready?"

John and Kal nodded to each other first, then to Mordin. Garrus gave a thumbs up. Seera, from wherever she was, let them know she had been ready for some time by way of a beautifully articulated and condescending insult. The human turned to Zaeed, "Light 'em up!"

Enough firepower to down a dropship flooded the tiny courtyard. The small band of warriors targeted and destroyed anything that moved. They mowed down geth in waves. Garrus and Seera worked in tandem; one taking a shot and covering the other while the he or she reloaded. Zaeed operated the rocket launcher with right hand while trying to keep his Revenant tracking on target with his left. John, Mordin, and Kal made their move, running to the left as quickly as possible, all the while putting round after round into targets of opportunity.

"Ease off with the launcher, Zaeed," John spoke over the network, "use your gun for a bit." The mercenary grunted understanding, and the chattering weapon began hitting home more reliably. John answered the regular pauses in firing with his own Revenant, keeping the huge construct occupied under an almost constant hail of bullets.

Mordin and Kal took the lead up the ramp, clearing the path of every geth they came across. With Garrus and Seera making it impossible for any geth on the right to stick their heads up, let alone get off a shot, and both Zaeed and John stopping the colossus from getting a bead on anything, the trio quickly stormed their way up to a group of containers. Assessing his surroundings, John realized that they had come to a halt not more than twenty meters from the door, in front of which stood a very dangerous looking colossus eyeing the small team.

"Everyone, bring it down," John said over the net.

Garrus and Seera shifted their aim to the beast's head, their combined fire shredding its heavy shields. Zaeed pummeled it with both his rocket launcher and a lot of questionably-aimed automatic weapon fire. Fortunately for all concerned, the rockets at least were self-guided. The creature collapsed to the hard stone ground from the fantastic power of the combined onslaught. Gradually, its legs and head shifted, trying to compress itself into a ball. The display looked pathetic to the human; he wanted to put it out of its misery on principle alone, never mind that it was attempting to start its self-repair sequence.

Ready to throw themselves to the ground, John signaled his team that the time had come to end it. They finished the thing off with a few more well-placed rounds, sending a huge explosion resonating throughout the stone courtyard. The three rescuers hit the stone floor behind a set of crates just in time to not get hit with the shrapnel. Pulling himself off the ground after things had settled, John wondered if Mordin's enigmatic collar-device somehow protected his ear-holes from the sound of such a devastating blast.

"Everyone okay?" he asked.

"Yup," said Kal.

"Indeed," added Mordin.

The salarian could still hear. That was good.

"Let's get our girl then," said John, walking over to the blast door, Kal and Mordin following. He hit the haptic control, but it didn't budge.

"Just a second," Tali said through a nearby intercom, "I sealed the door from the inside. I have to manually disengage the locking mechanism," her tone became both teasing and sultry, "How do I know it's really you John?"

"Can we not discuss this now, Tali?" he asked, glancing over to Kal for the briefest of seconds, "You know it's me. C'mon, open the door," John said, a hint annoyance and worry in his voice. After a few seconds, he went so far as to try knocking a couple of times.

Kal looked to John and then at the door but said nothing. Mordin busily typed on his omni-tool and gave no notice to the world around him.

"Nope, not good enough," now Tali was the one who sounded annoyed, "You could be geth, using a voice recording. You know what I want to hear. Remind me again how you proved it to me last time."

Kal knew damn well that geth didn't infiltrate, and he knew that Tali knew it. She was playing around with her _neyha_, but he refused to go along with it for some reason. Likely, something was going on here that the human didn't want having the older brother overhear. No one was dead or injured, thank the Ancestors, but they still had to get out of the area quickly. He decided to kill to avians with one stone.

"Shepard, we need to get out of here," he said, gesturing with a thumb in the general direction of the evacuation site, "She's as mean and stubborn as an _iaysaz _when she wants to be. Just tell her what she needs to hear and we can be off this rock."

"Oh! Wait, Kal," stammered Tali through the comm, hearing the other quarian's voice for the first time, "I, uh, it's okay-"

"No, no, Ma'am," Kal interrupted, smiling to himself, "I think you're right. You should never second-guess protocol."

"First, don't call me that," Tali said over the sounds of the mechanical locks cycling, "and second I'm opening the door now, so you don't have to-"

"No, Ma'am, I'm in charge of security for this mission and I insist," Kal crossed his arms over his chest and waited. The mechanical noises stopped.

John grunted loudly to himself. He may not have looked it, but he was thoroughly enjoying the moment. He'd defer to Tali's wishes, of course, but she deserved to be on the hot-seat for this. As he had suspected, Kal had no clue about the ring or its significance and Tali had wanted to keep it that way. That meant that for the time being, their engagement was her dirty little secret. As far as John was concerned, the whole galaxy should know, starting with her friends and family. They had to find out eventually.

"Go ahead and prove you're you, John," he heard a sigh over the comm, "and don't hold back."

The ex-Spectre cleared his throat, not sure how to proceed. Was she saying 'don't hold back' for the benefit of Kal, or did she really mean it? _Women... Am I supposed to be able to read their minds or something?_

"I gave you a ring, Tali," John said slowly and deliberately, "and I had it engraved with your old pass-phrase. Only I would know that," he finished, hoping he'd done his part correctly.

Kal appeared satisfied, and wondered what all the fuss was about. He turned back to the door, expecting it to open.

"No, John," she said softly, "thank you for trying, but he will know soon enough. I thought maybe I could wait until after we're done here, but I guess not," she sounded a touch rueful, "please tell him what kind of ring."

"An engagement ring," John said, turning to Kal. The quarian didn't react, so the human clarified, "We give them to females when we propose marriage. When we ask them to be our life-mates."

The quarian nodded silently. "I see," he finally said as the door opened and Tali stepped out. "I'm not happy that you kept this from us, from your family, Ma'am."

"The mission's over, Kal," she said, "No 'ma'ams' please. I think you know why I kept it from everyone on the fleet."

"No, I don't know," replied Kal, his voice stern, "Shepard's a good choice. This'll be the first and last time you hear me say this: I approve of this man. He only risked his life, and the lives of his people, countless times to save you and the galaxy both. You got handed what every woman alive would kill for. And it's not like anyone on the fleet wouldn't see this coming. After we were debriefed from Freedom's Progress, they all knew he'd come back. Plus you did request, and got approved, a new round of training with him. The approving authority was your father, no less. You should feel ashamed for hiding this."

Tali stood nodding her head the entire time he spoke, not daring to look him in the eyes. Truth be told, she felt both ashamed for hiding it and ashamed that it got out.

"But Auntie Raan...,"she said meekly, "And bonding to a..." she glanced subtly at John as she spoke, then started examining her fingers as she twiddled them. John reached out to rub her neck, just behind her _realk_.

Mordin finally noticed the conversation going on next to him when he began to wonder why everyone seemed to be standing around. He spoke for the first time since the end of the battle, "Ah, Lieutenant Zorah- concerned with the perceived lack of biological bonding imperative in-"

"Stuff it, amphibian," Kal interrupted suddenly before turning back to the girl who for all intents and purposes was his sister, "Yeah, kiddo, I know," He thought for a moment to himself. "I won't tell Admiral Raan or your father anything. It's not my place. You should do it in person as soon as possible, though."

"Thank you, Kal," she said.

"And Shepard?" Kal asked.

"Yeah?" John replied, bringing his attention to the platoon leader.

"I saw what she went through after you disappeared the first time," Kal looked as serious as a loaded rifle, "I don't _ever_ want to see that again. If it does happen, you better hope you're dead for real."

...

"How'd it go down there, Little Sis?" asked Jane as the crew sat around the cafeteria tables in the mess, enjoying Gardner's latest creation. He'd wanted some better ingredients, and Jane was sure as hell going to make sure he got them, along with a cook book. Clearly, he needed all the help he could get.

Garrus, sitting next to Tali and across from Jane, turned to the quarian, as did John and the rest of the ground team. All the attention made her feel a little uncomfortable. She started to get nervous and her fingers began playing with themselves before she could stop them. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to relax. _Garrus is my best friend, the captain is almost my sister, and I'm sleeping with the commander. I think I'll be okay._

"Not bad, actually," Tali replied honestly and confidently, "This whole mission could have been a disaster if your team hadn't been there in force, John. And if you weren't there to evacuate us, Jane. Thank you, both."

"Don't thank me, thank your recruiter," Jane quipped. John guffawed, while Jacob and Garrus smiled. The inside joke was lost on the rest of those within earshot.

Slightly confused, Tali continued, "We got the data, an analysis of the star that will hopefully tell us why it's dying. No one got hurt, thank the Ancestors, so it should be worth it," Tali became pensive and looked to John, "I wanted to come with you earlier, _Keelah_, I did, but I couldn't let anyone take my place on a mission this risky. I'm here now though."

"And we're glad to have you," Jane answered for her brother. This was fine by John, his feelings went without saying. Jane continued, "How are our other quarians settling in? Are they really okay with being dropped off at the citadel?"

"Absolutely. They would be mortified if you went to all the trouble of bringing them back to the Fleet. They'll catch a ride on the next quarian transport that stops by and someone will be along to reclaim the transport we left hidden on Haestrom, once everything calms down there. Assuming the geth haven't destroyed it. They are fine for now, most are busy exploring the ship or eating nutrient paste in the shuttle bay. Oh! And thank you for that gift of resources."

"The food?" asked Jane, "No thanks needed. We've got enough quarian rations to go around. Johnny made sure of it. I thought you guys were vegan, but he insisted on some serious carnivore stuff... I hope that's alright." Jane sounded concerned as she spoke.

"Of course it is!" the quarian replied cheerfully, "we're vegan out of necessity, not by choice. It's more efficient to grow food rather than raise livestock on the liveships. Our protein requirements are much higher than yours, actually. Almost as high as a turian's, I believe."

"Oh, really?" asked Jane rhetorically, "I think that means you should be careful Johnny. This one's got teeth." The room filled with gentle laughter as both John and Tali blushed, the former turning beet-red, while a deeper shade of lavender crept over the quarian's hidden face.

**I did my part people, now do yours. Review this chapter. I especially want to hear the opinions of those of you who have favorited or followed this story or myself, but have yet to post a review. I also want to hear from my regulars, I love you guys and you know who you are.**

**P.S. Be on the lookout for an in universe one-shot or two focusing on some Shakarian goodness, just for all you Garrus fangirls. **


	8. The Unforgiven

**Bioware owns the characters and everything else you can find in the Mass Effect Wiki. Calinstel owns 99.5% of the ideas behind the Quarians that I'm using. The rest is mine.**

**This is a really long one and I hope it's worth it. Please Fav, Follow, and Review if you like this. **

Chapter 8: The Unforgiven

"Commander, Tali wanted to see you down in engineering,"

"Thanks, Kelly," John nodded to her as he passed by the galaxy map on his way to the tech lab. "Why didn't she just tell me that herself?" he asked mostly to himself, not wanting to have a long conversation with the bright-eyed woman. She always seemed to lighten the mood wherever she went, but that didn't mean the commander always had time for it. He wondered what brought her into the employ of an organization like Cerberus, especially considering her forthright pan-sexuality, where sentience, he hoped, was her only criteria for an acceptable partner. The explanation he'd been given, some crude little yarn about how liking one's own species didn't mean hating another, didn't hold up as far as he was concerned.

He'd once heard that only crazy people decided to study psychology, and maybe that was it. The woman was just plain nuts. Then again, using that logic, once could conclude that only arsonists became firefighters, and only pacifists became soldiers. _That_ certainly wasn't true.

"Well, she was just passing through, I guess," the yeoman shrugged, "I had a wonderful chat with her. She's not what I expected from her psych report. I like her. I think maybe she didn't want to make a big deal about whatever she needed. It seems like she gets a little nervous with asking people for things, especially you." She smiled cheerfully and gave him a knowing look.

"Hmm? What do you mean by that?" he asked, knowing damn well what she meant. He just felt like having some fun at the red-head's expense.

"Oh, you know what I mean," she replied in a lascivious tone, arching an eyebrow as she spoke.

"No, I don't,"

"Really?" she asked. That shocked Kelly. Cerberus' intelligence network had insisted that Commander Shepard and the cute engineer were heavily involved during the hunt for Saren. All the same, it had been two years, and the commander had been dead. Could Tali have found someone else? She definitely still had feelings for him, but being in another relationship might complicate things. "It's just that I heard that you two were... And I thought..." she shook her head in disappointment. How could she have read the situation so poorly? "Well, my female intuition says that she still likes you, even after all the time that's passed."

"You don't say?" John asked in his best attempt to sound earnest. Clearly, no one was keeping Yeoman Chambers in the loop about anything that happened aboard the ship. He was sure his exhibition with the young quarian on the Kodiak at Freedom's Progress, in front of Jacob, Miranda, and their pilot no less, would have made its rounds by now. His attention turned to the data-pad in his hand, feigning disinterest in the conversation.

"It's in her body language; how she turns to you when you enter the room how she watches your every move," she said, gesturing broadly as she spoke.

"Huh. I don't see it. Not interested," he said, glancing up from the tablet long enough to catch the genuine shock and confusion written all over the woman's face.

"Oh." Kelly appeared crestfallen for the briefest second before turning suddenly chipper when she realized the commander was single. He would surely be in need of companionship on a such physically and psychologically exhausting campaign as this one. Of course it wouldn't do for the commander to suddenly turn somewhere else for what the she was perfectly willing, and more than happy, to provide. Perhaps she had spoken too hastily on her observations of the young engineer. "Well then there's no point dwelling on what she thinks of you, now is there?

"Uh, guess not. I'm gonna go talk to Mordin now, then see what Tali wants," he said, walking away from the yeoman. "Talk to you later."

"Of course commander. I'll be right here if you... you know... wanna talk some more."

John quickened his pace at her parting words. His little game had moved their conversation in an entirely unexpected and unwelcome direction. He would have to come up with an equally fun way to set the record straight at some point. Not even looking back, he gave a quick nod and entered the door to the tech lab.

...

"How's it coming with a defense against those things?" the John asked their salarian scientist as he pointed to the trapped seeker. The little mechanical creature skittered about its clear enclosure, constantly looking for an escape.

"Research is excellent," said Mordin, not taking his eyes from the scanner he held over the chattering thing. "A few more days, a week at most- should see a breakthrough."

"Good job," he said nodding at the man, "But maybe you should take a little more time to figure this out."

"Why? Sooner the better, correct?"

"Yes," agreed the human, "But you've been absent from training for the past three days. Don't tell me salarians don't need to keep their skills sharp. I know guys in the STG."

"Correct, but this, more important. Without proper-"

"No, this is not more important," chided the commander, "You're no good to us dead, which is what you'll be if shit hits the fan while we're on ground. Standing in here all day, hardly moving, can't be good for your muscles. Salarian metabolism means you'll deteriorate much faster than a human. I'd wager that in equivalent human terms you've missed a week or a week and a half of training."

"Perhaps, yes," admitted the scientist, "but do you not believe that-"

"No I don't," he replied firmly, holding out a data-pad, "This is a counseling statement outlining what we've discussed here, the corrective steps to take, as well as plans for a follow up and what happens if you miss more training."

"Understood, commander. What does happen?" Mordin took the tablet and read it in one tenth the time it would have taken a human speed-reader. He thumbed it to apply his signature.

"You'll have to stay aboard the ship. No more ground missions. The choice is yours," he answered.

"Will not miss the mandatory training again, but may request excused absences for mission-essential scientific pursuits, commander," he said, looking to John. The human nodded and Mordin turned back to his scanner, continuing, "Want to talk about medical matters. Aware that mission is dangerous. Different species react differently to stress. Past relationship with Tali'Zorah makes dalliance attractive as stress release. Still... recommend caution with intimate physical contact. Quarian immune system weak, could kill her."

John stood there, taking it all in. He hadn't wanted, let alone asked for, sex advice from the doctor. He thought about interrupting him, telling him to mind his own damn business, but Mordin had a point, and neither John nor Tali had any real expertise in these matters. If it could help her, then he would find out all he could. "I take it you have a recommendation as a doctor?"

"Yes," he confirmed, "Tali'Zorah must acquire antiseptic, recommend you self-sterilize as well. Oral contact with tissue dangerous, take precautions. Also forwarding advice booklet to your quarters, valuable diagrams, positions comfortable for both species, erogenous zone overviews. Can supply oils or ointments to reduce discomfort."

John nodded and started for the door. "Thanks, doc, I'm taking you seriously on this. And don't go spreading it around."

"Of course, Shepard. Would never jest about this. Doctor, patient confidentiality will be maintained!" he said, looking shocked at the mere suggestion of a breach of trust, "Will be here if you need me, studying cell reproduction. Much simpler. Less alcohol and mood-music required."

John smirked to himself and headed out to the door, the one to the hallway between the armory and the tech lab. Palming the interface for Jacob's 'office,' he announced himself as he entered.

"Hey, Jake, glad to see you here. How've you been?" he asked.

"Not bad, Sir, just cleaning and servicing the weapons. During that last mission, Zaeed put his Revenant through hell. Thermal magazines aren't perfect, you know. Barrels can still wear out pretty quick if you're not shooting in bursts. How are you doing?" Asked the operative.

"Doing well, doing well," he answered, looking over some of the firearms. Like all things military, they fascinated him. "I'll try to get Zaeed to ease up on the trigger every now and then. I think that's how he broke his last one. Do you feel like joining us on the Citadel? They'll be plenty of time."

"Absolutely. I'll swing by when I'm done here. Shouldn't be more than a couple of hours," he said, running a cleaning rod through a barrel for what seemed like the fiftieth time.

"I'll hold you to it," said John, "This'll give you a chance to update your wardrobe."

"You know it, Sir."

...

"Ma'am, we can do tha' of course, but I was jus' sayin' that with th' new FBA couplings-"

"Can it, Kenneth," Gabby interrupted before turning to the chief engineer, "He seems to have forgotten his customs and courtesies, Ma'am. Been out of the alliance too long."

"Clearly," Tali chastised the pair, "See that is does not happen again."

"Aye, Ma'am," they both called in unison.

Tali had little patience for back-talk, especially from Cerberus operatives. She had no love for their kind, and these two, as friendly and capable as they seemed, had yet to prove themselves to the quarian and were a long way away from earning her trust. Besides, the engineer knew an attempt to shirk one's responsibilities when she saw it.

"Do you know how long it took me to calibrate the FBA arrays aboard the _Neema_? Three times a day, up to an hour and a half each time. And don't even get me started on the _Rayya_," Tali sighed, remembering the work fondly. The monotony of the task counted among the many things that kept her mind off the emptiness and depression that had threatened to overwhelm her. "What possible justification besides your laziness could there be for wasting the captain's very important and limited resources on something that's working just fine as it is?"

Ken began to consider the question. "Well-"

"That was rhetorical, Crewman," she snapped, "You'll be doing a complete round of direct level maintenance on all four engines tonight. Both of you."

"Dammit, Kenneth," Gabby whispered loudly through clenched teeth.

"Lieutenant Zorah," said EDI, offering her opinion, "The engines are all operating between ninety-four and ninety-eight percent efficiency, and the cleaning cycle-"

"I never asked your opinion, you _bosh'tet_ abomination before the Ancestors," she hissed, "You will not address me without permission. The AI does raise a good point, though." She turned to the two engineers, pointing a finger at the pair. "The two of you will bring them all to within ninety-nine percent by tomorrow. It can be done. Make sure to thank your AI."

"Thanks, EDI," mumbled Ken.

"Yeah, thanks," added Gabby.

"Of course, crewmen Donnelly and Daniels. Logging you out," said EDI with the faintest hint of chagrin in her synthetic voice.

Tali turned back to her station just as the port engineering door opened. Nervous anticipation filled the girl, prompting her to unconsciously bob up and down on her toes. Both Ken and Gabby noticed the subtle shift in the Lieutenant's demeanor, bringing smiles to both their faces. If the Commander was behind that door, they might get out of their overnight work detail after all. If it wasn't him, they might have to get the engines to one hundred percent efficiency before their morning work-out regimen with the boss. Slowly, they both turned to the hissing door, trying to look without making it appear obvious.

"Good morning, how's everything down here?"

Relief washed over all three occupants of the room.

"John, I'm so glad to see you," Tali gushed, all but rushing over to meet her human. She continued in a skeptical tone, "We were discussing crewman Donnelly's request for a set of T6-FBA couplings to replace the current ones. We don't need them and they cost too much, anyway."

"And I'm always very glad to see you," he said, giving her a light peck on the visor. A soft squeal, unmistakably happy in nature, sounded throughout the quiet room. "Couplings, huh? What makes these new ones better than the ones we have?"

"Well, nothing, really," said Tali, "they just don't have to be calibrated as often. The ones we have work fine, so there's no need to waste perfectly good resources-"

"Cerberus resources," pointed out John, pulling her to the side and whispering, "It's your call. Far be it for a nosey soldier to stick his head in ship's business, but finances are no object right now. I suggest you spend as much of it on whatever you can. Don't feel bad for reallocating their money or their time," he finished with his best and most charming grin.

Apparently, it worked. Tali cocked her head to the side, understanding slowly dawning on her. "Well, yes, I think we could use those couplings after all, and a few other things. I will, uh, draw up a list of items to purchase when we're on the Citadel," she said, nodding to herself, "Crewmen Donnelly and Daniels can use all the extra time we save on calibrations for something else, like taking over a greater portion of the engine cleaning schedule. That should free me up for some, uh, other activities," she finished, her mind reeling at the possibilities. _More time with John? Hell yes that's a great idea. And how much would he let me get away with? I hope he knows that if he's offering a blank check, I'll have no problem spending Cerberus into oblivion. How many ships I could buy before those _bosh'tets_ even noticed? I should start slow, maybe a new enviro-suit, an updated HUD for my visor, or a formal _realk_. Then again, I won't want to be wearing this pattern much longer. Maybe a black one, hopefully only temporarily..._

"Excellent," he said, "What did you want to talk to me about. Kelly mentioned-?"

"Oh, right!" she said excitedly, gesturing wildly as she spoke, "I got the results back from the _Moreh_. You asked me to look into the AI code and your surgical operation. The data is in!" She grabbed his upper arms and bounced on her toes.

"Glad to hear it. So what's the deal?" he asked.

"Well," she replied quickly, getting her words out as fast as she could, "Goods news on both counts, I guess. Well on one count. Maybe both," she started to tilt her head to the ceiling, examining its conduits spluttering on, "It depends on how you feel about the AI I suppose. I mean ultimately it's the captain's call if she wants to work with the damn thing and there's still no evidence that that's actually a very good idea. If she were to ask me, of course-"

"Tali."

Lost in her thoughts, she continued without hearing, "-I'd say we should just space its core, just to be on the safe side. I mean, this AI could be the nicest one in the galaxy," she turned in place, scanning the interior of engineering all around her, "but that kind of power can't be ignored. Not that she has any real power right now, she doesn't, but ships schematics show there's a manual override for the shackling runtimes-"

"Tali..."

Still she continued even faster, still looking away from the human, "-and if the AI were to find a sympathetic crew member and convince him or her to-"

"Tali," said John, this time lightly clamping a hand down on her shoulder.

"Oh!" she chirped, jumping a little before gently grabbing his hand, pressing it into her shoulder, and turning to face him, "Sorry. Rambling. But you get the idea?"

"Yeah. She's safe enough for now. I'll tell Jane and see what she wants to do. What about us? Jane and I?"

"That's the really good news!" If possible, she appeared even more excited than a few moments ago. "You two are fine. The cybernetic control software is very simple, and only interprets the input from your brainstem, turning it into impulses..."

John nodded as he tried to follow along, despite his laymen understanding of the sciences. Half a minute into Tali's explanation and he found himself getting lost very quickly. His mind wandering, he started to think about how the Citadel may have changed since Sovereign's attack two years ago. Would all the old stores be there, or would new ones be built in their place? Would they have managed to rebuild anything at all? What about that hobby store where he could indulge in all his secret, guilty pleasures? All his old models were long gone; he'd have to replace them at some point. Even if his favorite store wasn't there anymore, there had to be a at least two dozen other similar places on the Citadel, some of which had to be near where they were going.

"...and then turns that sensory input into minute electrical signals that your brain stem receives. There is other software that controls how all the organic and synthetic components interact..."

He was amazed how she could keep going and going on a single subject like this. He debated on whether or not to interrupt her, asking her to just get to the point, but she truly seemed to be enjoying herself. For his part, he liked hearing her voice, even if he understood only every tenth word of what she had to say and had just referred to his internal organs as 'components.' He'd never let Mordin get away with babbling like this. _Sorry, Professor, but it seems you're been made the victim of my double standard._

"...so even where your brains are concerned, there seems to be no adverse modifications, to the extent that they were intentional, anyway."

"Wait, what was that last part?" John quickly shook his head out of his daydream. "What do you mean by 'to the extent that they were intentional?'"

"Oh, right. Well, as much as I hate to admit it, this is superior workmanship," she explained, "but you two are still untested prototypes. There's a lot of nano-tech in there... Stuff we've never seen before, and that says a lot. We've been at it a thousand years. There's a small possibility that it could cause adverse reactions. And you two will require maintenance at some point, I believe. At least annual check-ups to see if everything is okay."

"Great. So do I see a doctor or a mechanic?" he asked, scratching the back of his neck.

"Um, both?" she shrugged. "I'm glad to do it. I have an idea of what's going on in there. I've been pouring over your schematics since you gave them to me. There's another person who might be better qualified," she said, suddenly looking very uncomfortable, "She's an expert in nano-tech, software engineering, biomedical engineering, and," Tali mumbled the last, "brain surgery."

"This expert sounds perfect," he said, "But you don't sound convinced."

"Her name is Daro'Xen. Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh. She's the best, but she's a little different. In the head. And not in a good way, if you ask me. I... Forget her John," she shook her head and patted his shoulder, "Between Karin, Mordin, and I, we can take care of you two."

"That works. The name... Xen," he said thoughtfully, scratching at his chin stubble, "it sounds familiar, but I can't place it."

...

"Mmmm..."

"That good, huh?" asked Garrus, stroking Jane's flat stomach, inching his hand close to her waist and hips.

"You know your the best," she answered coyly, though for some reason she hated giving him the satisfaction of admitting it. "I still can't believe you can keep it up, so many times."

"Hmm?" he questioned, lifting his head up from the loving and gentle bites he gave her neck, "that was more than one 'time' for you?"

"I..." she didn't know what to say. She angled her head, a look of disbelief across her face. "That was only one time for you?"

"Yeah, same as always," he said, the shrug evident in his voice. He pointed to the door to her cabin. "I never left the room."

"Wow, just... wow."

They continued to cuddle for a few minutes, both still too wired on endorphins and hormones to sleep. Soon, Jane's alarm clock would go off, signaling the beginning of the morning shift. They both had a full schedule. Neither was going to get any sleep, and strangely, they were both okay with that.

Garrus broke the silence. With no other woman would violence be considered acceptable pillow talk, but this human was different. "I might need your help soon."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I've some contacts..." he said quietly, "I'm tracking down the guy who betrayed us, got my team killed."

"And you want my help when you find him?" she asked, wrapping her arms tightly around his as he spooned her.

"Do you mind?" he asked, his gentle bites reaching her shoulders.

"Of course not, babe!" she turned to face him, dumbfounded that he thought he even had to ask. When she met his gaze, she couldn't help but give him a quick kiss on the beak before she turned back to rest her head on the pillow. "We'll get him. We'll get him and we'll fucking kill him."

"I love you," he said.

"I love you too," she replied.

...

"Knock, knock," the captain's voice sounded through Miranda's comm and filled the executive officer's stately cabin.

"Come in Ma'am!" the raven-haired woman said loudly, knowing the door could hardly be called sound-proof. The door slid open, admitting one disheveled Jane Shepard. "What can I do for you, Ma'am?"

The captain smiled and took a seat across from her number one officer aboard the ship. It occurred to her that she had yet to make that official. The woman had certainly proven herself effective in that capacity, so much so that Jane hadn't even noticed when she allowed her to slip seamlessly into the role and had even began to think of her as such. The logistics of the _Normandy_, and even quite a bit of the captain's own paperwork, ceased to be a factor in her day-to-day command. It wasn't the topic she had initially come to speak to the woman about, but the Cerberus operative deserved her due.

"Well, Miri, I think it's time I recognized you as the ship's XO," she said.

The operative sat there for a moment, confusion in her eyes and lips slightly parted. Had she heard right? Yes, she'd been doing all of those duties, but actually being given _de jure_ authority was another matter entirely. Her expression turned into a soft but knowing smile. Even the Butcher of Torfan could recognize her abilities and value her as an asset to the ship and crew. "Thank you Jane, but are you sure?" she asked, still uncertain, "What about your brother? Wouldn't he make a better choice?"

"No," the captain shook her head, "Not only would he not want that, but he's got enough to worry about leading the-" she started to say 'marine' before remembering that there were no actual marines aboard, "-ground team. They're small, but he's going to be recruiting more. Not to mention that being ship's XO would put him directly under me... He's not as comfortable with that as it might seem." She smiled to herself. Frankly the idea of giving Johnny any actual orders made her just as uncomfortable. It had always worked just fine the other way around since they were children, with him as the brains and she as the brawn. Not that she had more physical strength that Johnny, far from it in fact, the man could bench-press a hundred fifty kilos, but biotics accounted for quite a lot more.

"Well, captain, I accept the honor. I will not let you down," she said, her expression radiating happiness, not for what Jane had given her, but for what she had earned despite all the obstacles working against her. Frankly, she was amazed that she hadn't been relegated to scrubbing toilets since day one, given the rough start of their relationship. First impressions could be overcome then. Perhaps it was time. The corners of her mouth dipped slightly and she turned pensive. "Captain, can I ask you a favor?"

Jane nodded. "Of course."

"I have a twin sister named Oriana..." she sighed, "she's in danger."

"Family issues are always tough. Hard on morale," the ex-Spectre said, appearing to mull over the idea. "We can take a look, see how we can help. You've got more information on this?"

Miranda nodded and brought up her omni-tool. "I've got a whole file, it has everything I've got." She deftly hit a few of the haptic keys and a second later Jane's own tool chimed to indicate she had a new message in her inbox. "The bottom line is that she's on Illium, but she's not safe there. Not from my father. We're, well Cerberus, is making arrangements to move her, but daddy dearest has no doubt hired some mercenaries to intercept them. I think our presence to oversee the transfer would help immeasurably, and two of our recruits are on Illium anyway."

"That shouldn't be a problem, especially if we're going there," Jane agreed. She moved some strands of hair behind her ears as her green eyes moved over the contents of the open file hovering above her wrist. After less than a minute, she collapsed the document and deactivated her tool. It was time to discuss what had brought her here this morning. "So, uh, we're going to pick up Miss Goto and talk to the council Going by your supply delivery timeline, we're going to be docked here a while. You want to take a day-pass and get some shore leave? Johnny wanted you to update your wardrobe. Get some of those faux-military tactical clothes they sell at all those surplus stores, and maybe some nice civvies?"

"That sounds... good..." Miranda agreed slowly, somewhat unconvinced that the _Normandy_ could survive even a moment of her absence.

"It's either that or leave it up to John to pick it all out for you," the captain said, shrugging, "I'm sure you'll love whatever he decides to bring back. And if it doesn't fit, there's still a quarian tailor floating around here somewhere."

"I get it, I get it," said the operative, holding up her hands and smiling slightly, "I'll go, but I still have to finish up some supply requests for the thermal clips and ammo blocks we lost on Haestrom. Not to mention the class one and six, stuff; those quarians can sure pack it away." She shook her head.

"Right, but it was worth it, seeing them like that, wasn't it?" asked Jane.

"Well, maybe, if they weren't so loud. Obnoxious even. And now Tali has barely enough food for a month and no liquor at all..." She thought briefly about what John might have in his private stock, "well, almost none."

"We both know Tali doesn't drink," the captain scoffed, "and we've got the time and money to get more food. They weren't obnoxious either, not by a long shot. Loud and drunken, sure, but they left the cargo bay nicer than they found it, cleaned everything in sight. Even sorted some of the gear and polished the shuttles after they recovered from their hangovers and stomach aches. How many marine parties have you been to where that happened?"

"None, but I've never been to a marine party," replied Miranda.

"Too bad," Jane shook her head, "and now you lost your chance. Their males are probably your best bet to try some xeno without getting too exotic... Or going gay." A quick sideways glance from Miranda was just enough to give her away. Jane smiled like the cat who just caught the canary, enjoying the operative's grimace when she noticed how Jane caught the subtle sign. Those tight suits were equally effective regardless of which gender wore them, and as much as she might hate to admit it, the executive office couldn't deny noticing.

"Really?" asked Miranda, "I hadn't noticed."

Apparently, she could.

The operative continued, "'Trying xeno' as you put it, is not for me. And no, I don't care to know what I'm missing. Did they take anything when they were organizing and cleaning the cargo bay?"

"Not a thing," said Jane, "I had a crew do a one hundred percent inventory this morning." She added quickly, "And not because they're quarian. Even if they'd been human marines I'd have thought they'd take at least something. Not even a bottle of hand sanitizer was missing."

"Good," said the operative, "They'll be the first ones off when we dock, just in case they change their minds."

"Alright," she said, getting up to leave, "I'll call you when we're done with the councilors."

"Jane," Miranda said quietly as the other woman reached the door. She turned with a questioning gaze. "Thank you for not asking about my father."

"Sure," she replied, palming the door switch and walking out.

...

John's fiancé vied for his attention against several hundred model ships, each boxed and shelved before him. This particular store had the best selection he had every seen. After the battle of the Citadel two years ago, there had been a boom in the industry, with every kid, and kid-at-heart, wanting to own a copy of each of the participants. The store had expanded to claim the real-estate of its neighbor, a cinnamon-bun shop that had been smashed to bits by a downed turian fighter.

"What about this one?" Tali asked, pushing a model of on old and worn batarian cruiser into his field of view, shaking it for effect, its pieces softly rattling inside. The thing looked almost derelict in the pictures on the box, even when completed and painted. The girl bounced on her toes as John examined the box, a clear indication that she thought she'd made a good find.

"Eww, batarian. I'll never buy this," he said, chuckling. Her reaction was not what he expected. She looked mildly put-off by the comment.

"Really? I'm going to tell Seera you said that," she said, her tone mildly admonishing. "It's not batarian, not any more. Look," she flipped the box over and drew a finger under some of the pictures, "Depending on how you build it, you can make the _Gress'Shal_, the _Furenay_, or the _Ideena_." She dropped the box on top of the pile he'd accumulated and trotted off to dig through some more of the shelved models.

The salarian clerk glanced over at her as she fondled his merchandise, but quickly returned to his data-pad. Unlike most of the quarians who plagued his shop, this one was a paying customer. Or rather she was with a paying customer, helping him make purchases at least, and that was good enough.

He saw her returning with yet another of his models, this time a five-hundred credit liveship, and the well-dressed man added it to his stack. He may be morally opposed to a quarian urchin tricking yet another neophyte human into becoming their sugar-daddy, but he wasn't going to turn away good money. He chalked it up to the mystery of the suits and the relatively new species' damnably incessant curiosity.

The human added three more models to his basket before approaching the counter, unloading his merchandise one box at a time. The clerk dutifully totaled the cost of the purchases.

"Three thousand, five hundred, sixty-five credits, please," said the salarian.

"How about a discount in exchange for my endorsement of this place," countered John. Tali drew up close to his side, hand in the small of his back, and tried to make eye contact with him. She seemed either confused or mortified or both.

"Uh, well, who are you, exactly?" asked the clerk.

"John Alan Shepard, one of the first human Spectres," he replied, holding out his omni-tool, displaying his expired Spectre credentials. The salarian eyed them approvingly.

"And you're the Hero of the Citadel!" added Tali, "And the Lion of Elysium, don't forget those, my dashing commander!" She made an exaggerated display of being awestruck in the man's presence, one hand clasped over her heart, the other pawing at his arm, and both knees wobbly.

"Oh, wow!" exclaimed the clerk, "Certainly, yes, and thank you. Okay," he said, scratching his head for a moment. He keyed his terminal a few times and looked up to the human, "Start speaking now, if you please."

"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel," he said, a little embarrassed.

"Alright, wow, thanks again!" said the clerk, honestly impressed that _The_ Commander Shepard had walked into his store and endorsed it no less. "Your new total is two thousand, eight hundred and fifty-two credits."

John transferred the credits directly from his omni-tool and gathered up his bagged merchandise. He'd never been one to use the semi-ubiquitous credit chits. He started to the door, Tali following behind.

"You're such a whore," she whispered in the human's ear.

John's omni-tool sounded, playing the unique tone he used for his sister. Activating it, Jane's image appeared above his wrist.

"What's up, Sis?" he asked, "Did you pick up Goto?"

"Yeah, she's loading her stuff onto the hip now. Anderson's ready," she said, "He can see us now. There's a quiet Thai place, level nineteen, block five-A."

"Sounds good, be there in ten minutes," he said, handing his bag out to Tali, "Would you mind running these to the ship?" he asked, "we'll build the first one this evening."

"Of course," she said, taking the bag, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "I should be so honored as to carry the mighty Spectre's belongings for him."

...

"Glad to have you two back," said the human councilor between bites of Pad Thai as the twins pulled up seats at his table. "I hope you excuse that I got food without you, but I was hungry and the wonderful smells in this place were getting to me. Care for some? Or would you like to order?"

"Neither, thank you," said John, grabbing a pair of drink menus and passing one to Jane, "We've got dinner reservations."

"Down to business then," said Anderson, setting aside his plate, "What did you want to see me about? I assume it isn't something as simple as hitching a ride to the nearest alliance base and filing your report on where the hell you've been for the last two years."

"Come on, Sir, don't give us that crap- Lao Khao, please, make it a triple," Jane turned from the waiter standing over her shoulder, "Johnny?"

"Uh," he took a quick second to look over the drink specials before settling for something familiar, "Long Island iced tea, use the cheap stuff."

"Really, Nee?" she scowled at her brother, "You can afford to live it up, you know."

Anderson stared in disbelief at the only two people, back from the dead, who were the closest thing he had to family. Were they really just carrying on like the two years hadn't happened? "Look, you two, enough-"

"Just because I can afford it, doesn't mean I-" he noticed the server waiting for clarification, "Cheap stuff," he said to the man, leaving no room for interpretation, before turning back to Jane. "It's not like I can taste the difference anyway."

Jane was about to retort. This would go on for a while if Anderson didn't do something. "Shepards!" he said, smacking the table with an open hand, "Focus! Why am I here? Where have you been all this time?"

"We were being rebuilt for the last two years. Basically," John shrugged, "_probably_, we were dead. Cerberus brought us back," Anderson gasped, but the ex-Spectre continued, his omni-tool glowing orange as he activated it, "We have all the data, including a holo of the procedures, on what they did to us as well as technical specs on the new _Normandy_ they built for us. I'm transferring it all to you now. The quarians already vetted it and even they're willing to work with us."

Anderson's omni-tool chimed at receiving the copious files. "Work with you doing what, exactly?" he asked.

Jane answered this time. "We're investigating some missing human colonies, going after the collectors, and..." she hesitated, sharing a glance with her brother, "the reapers."

"I see," said Anderson, stirring his food with a fork as he considered, "so what do you want me to do? Help you avoid prosecution for collaborating with a known terrorist organization? Or officially sanction this mission? Or somewhere in between?"

"Reinstate us in the Alliance," John said bluntly, "List us as Prisoners of War, which technically we were. Put us each in command of a special operational detachment, one for our ground team, and the other for Jane's flight crew. We'll get you names for our personnel when we can. Or you could just put us both on special assignment or list us as being in some foreign-service counter-insurgency school, or something similar. Either way, we'll report to you on Cerberus activities. You couldn't ask for a better means to infiltrate their network." He and his sister smiled, waiting for their mentor's response.

"And here I though Jane was the only one who could get right to the point." He sighed heavily and tossed his fork onto his plate, its clanging very audible in the small restaurant. "You should have worked your way up to it, Johnny, given an old man time to let it all sink in..." He pressed his palms to his face and rubbed his eyes. "Okay, how about this. You each get six months leave, pending reassignment. Is that enough time?"

Both the twins nodded.

He wiped his lips with a napkin and said, "Okay, I will see to it that your discharges are rescinded and you're both back on active status. Enjoy your leave, but don't do anything that could get you in trouble. Or at least don't let anyone find out about it. I'll get you an encrypted transmitter. Send me weekly reports on your activities, or whenever something big comes up. Include Hackett on your transmissions; he might have an assignment or two for you. We'll be looking at your surgery, you understand. We need to make sure it's you, and you're all right." With that, he got up to leave.

"Of course," John said.

"Definitely," added Jane.

"Whatever the circumstances," said Anderson holding out a hand, "It's good to have you two back, it really is."

Jane slapped his hand aside and stood up in front of him. She wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug, "It's good to be back, Sir."

...

"John, Jane, how did it go with the councilors?" asked Tali as she munched on the contents of a tube of sterilized snacks. She waited next to Garrus just outside the door to the chambers; the meeting had been private. From where the tube sat affixed just under her vocalizer, she twisted a knob at its base, elevating the contents into her mouth, one small piece at a time. A new round of crunching noises could be heard, taking on the tinny quality of her speech, her vocalizer light illuminating and dimming in time with her chewing.

Yet again, it was the cutest thing John had even seen. "Fine," he said before getting to what was really on his mind, "What are you eating there?"

"_Yish'alam _skin, deep fried," she said, "The closest thing you have is pork rinds. I wonder if we could ever make dextro pigs. You all use that animal for so much, bacon, pork chops, ribs, ham... Everyone seems to like bacon." She tilted her head in either thought or humor.

"Probably not, Tali," he said. She almost looked like she wanted to pout. Mechanical engineering was one thing, but clearly biology was not the girl's strong suit, "and some of our religions forbid its consumption."

Tali shrugged, "More for me when they do breed dextro pigs."

"It went fine?" asked Garrus, "So what happened?"

"We're Spectres again," supplied Jane, shaking her head at the quarian's comments.

"That's great," said Garrus. "So they'll be helping us?"

"Ha!" she guffawed, "Do they ever help us, Skully?" Jane ran a hand along his fringe and he took it. She leaned into him for a bit, as if she were a combat mech and was somehow using him recharge her batteries after an especially long battle. She sighed and began again, "They gave us out statuses back and nothing more. No other help of any kind. I wanted to tell them to cram it up their collective asses, but..." she looked to her brother, "cooler heads prevailed. Still, it's better than nothing, I guess."

"Don't we have some errands to run?" asked Garrus, "We've got time before we meet Kal and Seera for dinner. And are they together or what?"

"I'm not sure," said John, "If they aren't they should be. Why don't you take Jane and I'll see what kind of trouble Tali and I can get into?"

"Works for me," he turned to his girlfriend, "Jane?"

"Sure, Skully. Drinks first. I think I threw up in my mouth a little back there and I've got to get the taste out."

Garrus led her away to the nearest elevator, with Tali and John following. After a few long seconds of doing nothing but staring at the doors in front of them, he couldn't resist breaking the silence. "Ah, this brings back memories," he said, turning to Tali, "Do you ever miss those talks we had on the elevators?"

"No."

"Come one, remember how we'd all ask you about life on the Flotilla?" he smiled, mandibles wide, "It was an opportunity to share..." He nudged her a little with an elbow. She didn't seem to be in the mood for reminiscing.

"This conversation is over."

It had started as an honest attempt to make conversation, but now the opportunity to tease couldn't be ignored. He had to get in at least one more dig. "Tell me again about your immune system."

"I have a shotgun."

"...Maybe we'll talk later." They rode in perfect silence until the doors opened to Zakera ward.

...

"This clanless is a thief _hsst_ and I want her arrested."

"Wha? I was just walking by!" an indignant, modulated voice responded to the charge.

That got John's attention. Minding his own business, window shopping for some new tech with Tali, he shot bolt upright when he heard the word 'clanless.' His fiancé had heard it to, he guessed, but she gave no obvious reaction. Looking over his shoulder, he caught sight of the disturbance. A volus stood speaking to a human C-Sec officer, pointing at a quarian girl next to him.

"An arrest? That sounds like it could be Spectre jurisdiction," he said, turning to Tali, "Shall we?"

She folded her arms across her chest and started toward the gathering. "Yeah, you handle it. I might do something I regret."

"This is an active police investigation," said the C-Sec officer as the human and quarian approached. "You'll have to move along." The last thing he needed was for a fight to break out because he arrested this quarian's sister or something. There weren't that many of them; they were probably related. Seeing the pair still approach, he suspected the worst. Thumbing his shoulder radio, he turned to his side and spoke softly but clearly, "Dispatch, this is unit three-two-two, officer needs assistance, requesting back-up, Zakera Ward, level twenty six, block thirteen-B, possible domestic, over."

"Don't bother, your back-up is here," said John, coming to a stop before the officer. He held out his omni-tool, his newly reinstated Spectre credentials floating above it. "John Shepard, council Spectre."

"Oh, sorry, Sir," said the man, gulping, "I didn't recognize you. Glad to, uh, have you back..."

John looked down at his own clothes, a dark-gray business-formal suit, and then back to the man. He couldn't fault him too much for confusing the Spectre for a civilian.

"_Roger, thee-two-two, back-up is on its way, three minutes, how copy?"_

"They're welcome to join the party," said John, smiling, "but as of right now, I'm taking over this investigation."

"Right," said the officer, turning back to his shoulder radio, "Good copy, dispatch, negative on the back-up, a Spectre has just arrived. It's his show now. I say again, cancel back-up request, over."

"_Good copy, three-two-two, dispatch out._"

"Do you really think this is Council business, Sir?" the officer asked in a tone that suggested he already knew the answer. It didn't take a genius to see where the Spectre's interest had come from. Chances were good that the quarian with him now was the same one who had been with him two years ago, and everyone had read about them in the tabloids.

"Yes, I do," he lied. Turning to the quarian, he asked, "What's your name?"

"Lia'Vael" she began, "And I-"

"There's nothing _hsst_ to talk about!" interrupted the volus, "She stole my _hsst _credit chit. Arrest her," he demanded of John.

"I did not!" Lia retorted, "Just because I'm a quarian..."

John looked to the girl at hearing the name. There was no way to tell if she was related to Seera, not from her general body shape, which hardly varied at all by human standards, and certainly not from the voice, which held absolutely no similarity to the Farseeker's accented tone. Not for the first time did John wonder about the differences of dialect, accent, and translation software. If hearing the name did one thing, it was to give him even more sympathy than he already felt for the girl. He really hoped she was innocent.

Turning back to her, he said, "You say you're falsely accused?"

"Yes," she said, "I was walking to the used ship dealer when he barged into me outside the Sirta Foundation. He didn't stop or say he was sorry. A minute later, he runs up with C-Sec and accuses me of stealing his damn chit!"

"Do you spend a lot of time at the used ship dealer?" he asked out of curiosity. Quarians loved anything ship related, and with good reason, he figured. Maybe she had one on layaway. If she did steal the chit, she might have spent the money on that.

"Yeah," she said, turning morose, "They've got a lot of nice models. I'd like to buy one and take it back to the fleet, but..." she trailed off.

"Your Pilgrimage isn't going to well, is it?" asked Tali, speaking for the first time since they decided to intervene.

"No, Fleet Sister. I..." Lia shook her head, feeling sad and disappointed. She had recognized the other quarian and her purple, Zorah-patterned _realk_ before she ever approached. Indeed, she'd been on her way to say hello to her and her human _nehya_ when she'd been stopped by the authorities. Having to tell another quarian, and adult quarian no less, that her Pilgrimage was turning into a failure was one thing, but having to say that to _The_ Tali'Zorah? Nothing was going right. "I came here thinking there'd be a lot of work. EVA stuff, salvage. Fixing all the damage the geth attack caused," she sighed, "Everywhere I went to apply, signs said 'not hiring quarians.' And the other people would give me mean looks."

Tali pulled the girl off to the side, and John heard her mumble something into the pilgrim's audio pick-up, something too low for the translator to overhear. It looked like she was consoling her. He turned to the C-Sec officer. "What has your investigation uncovered so far?" he asked.

"My omni-tool can tell the quarian doesn't have a chit on her. But she could have stashed it to recover later. You know what quarians..." the C-Sec officer started to say something, but thought better of it when he noticed the Spectre's girlfriend walking back to the gathering. "Well, she's definitely a..." again, it looked like he wanted to say something but cut himself short when he noticed how intently the Spectre and his quarian girlfriend were staring at him. "I was going to run her in and see what Bailey wants to do with her," he finished simply.

"What were you going to say?!" Tali asked angrily, her finger poking into the man's chest. "That she's a vagrant? She's on Pilgrimage. It's a tradition in which young quarians, around twenty-one years of age, are sent out alone to learn about the galaxy, get jobs, and earn or discover things of value to the fleet. It's out transition to adulthood, do you understand?"

"Yeah, I get it," he said, "not a vagrant, but still she has no fixed address. Legally, it's the same-"

"No, it isn't," said John as Tali turned back to Lia, "consider it freedom of religious expression. Or freedom of speech, or assembly. You're still human enough to recognize those rights, aren't you? I know Bailey is."

"Sure. Fine," he admitted, "It's your show now, anyway, so I'll file it however you want."

"Works for me," said John, before turning to the volus, "You say she stole your credit chit?"

"She must have _hsst_. When I left the Sirta foundation store _hsst_, she ran right into me," he said.

"So you think that's how she stole it from you?" asked John.

"Yes _hsst_ . You can't turn your back _hsst_ on these clanless quarians." At this, John took a step closer to the diminutive alien. The C-Sec officer took a step back. He was no fool and could see where this was going. The volus didn't get the hint. "Thieves, all of them."

John got down to eye-level with the volus as he spoke. His head was inches from the alien's. He'd given the volus on Talis Fia exactly one chance to take back his- her?- words before doing something rash, and he'd give this one the same opportunity. "What's your name, you little pig-faced-"

Tali interrupted, "Quarians are only forced to steal when people like you won't let them have real jobs!" She kneeled next to John and grabbed the volus by the tubes on his shoulders.

"Gah! _hsst_ Please tell the clan-" Tali swiftly jerked the tubes before he could finish, almost pulling them off, eliciting a scream from the little man. "Her! _hsst _Tell _her_ to-"

"I am clan Zorah," she said proudly, "crew of the starship Neema. And you will ask _me_ if you want me to release you."

John idly checked the time on his omni-tool and waited. Lia watched Tali with rapt attention and admiration for how her fleet sister was standing up to these persecutors.

"Could you please release me, Zorah-Clan?" asked the volus.

Without speaking, Tali let the man go, pushing him back a little as she did. Standing up, she returned to Lia.

John scratched the back of his head and thought. He wanted this to be over, and he didn't think this girl had stolen the chit. Even if she did, she had certainly picked the right person to steal from. A more unsympathetic figure than this volus could not be found.

"It's obvious to me," said John, "that you simply lost your chit. I suggest you retrace your steps and ask the clerks at all of the stores you visited. Somebody probably found it and turned it in. There is no probable cause to detain this girl," he turned to the other human, "An accusation isn't sufficient and you know that, officer. If you do find something, it's not like she's a flight risk."

John started walking off with Tali behind him, holding Lia in tow. When the were no more than a few down paces away, John heard a scream from the volus. He stopped to look, but Tali kept walking, grabbing him with her other hand and dragging him along.

"Jacked his olfactory filters," she whispered as she drew up along side him. He gave a short laugh and shook his head.

"Thank you," said Lia as they walked, "I wish I could give you something more than words."

"Can you take care of yourself from here?" asked John.

"I guess," she nodded somberly, "I mean, most of the time I eat nutrient paste in a turian shelter. But I'm surviving," she tried to sound up-beat.

Tali stopped dead in her tracks. John stopped too, and sensing what was going on, turned to Lia, "Give us a few moments, please?" The girl nodded and walked off a few paces to examine the window displays of a store specializing in shoes and gloves. "Well?" he asked Tali.

"Well, you know what I'm going to ask, don't you?" she replied.

"Yes, and you know what I'm going to say," he retorted.

"You'll sat it will be too dangerous for a pilgrim and there's no way we can take her along. I get it, I just..." She shook her head and couldn't finish. She didn't like seeing her people this way, and if there was anything she could do to help, she would. She only wished John could see things how she did. She had some credits saved up, maybe...

"That's not what I was going to say," he explained, "only that it _will_ be dangerous, yes, and she should be made aware of that before we do ask her to come aboard. Not to mention the whole Cerberus thing."

"Really?!" she shouted, bouncing on her toes while hugging John, forcing him into a bounce as well, "You mean it? Yes, I will let her know immediately. Extend the offer. This isn't the first time a quarian pilgrim has served aboard a human frigate on a dangerous mission, you know."

"I know," his words came out strained and uneven, growing louder and softer with each bounce, "give her until this evening to think it over, but she, and her things, need to be at our dock no later than twenty-two hundred hours."

After a few more seconds of hugging, and Lia trying not to notice, Tali released her human and walked over to the patiently waiting girl. "Do you know where I did my Pilgrimage, Lia?" she asked.

"Of course," she replied, "Everyone knows that. You served with him," she indicated the smiling human, " and his sister aboard the _Normandy_. That's how you saved the Citadel." She carefully omitted how her Pilgrimage had finally ended. There were no secrets on the fleet. On the one hand, the human's temporary death had resolved the question of whether or not their fleet sister would ever return, but on the other, well, the past two years had not been kind to the woman. Things were at least looking up.

"Yes," Tali agreed, "and now he has a new ship, and a new crew, and we're off on a new mission. Would you like to complete your Pilgrimage as I did?"

She was flabbergasted at the offer. Not having expected anything of the sort, she could only stare for a few seconds before stammering. "Yes! Absolutely! I mean, I don't mean to sound too eager, but _Keelah_, yes. You don't know how much this means to me, and I promise I'll do everything in my power to help the ship run right. I'll mop floors, clean engines, I can shoot a gun, whatever you need."

Tali nodded, she would have been just as excited, were their roles reversed. Still, the girl needed to understand what she was in for and she'd need some time to make an informed decision. "Our mission is long and very hazardous. Take a few hours to decide and-"

"I can decide now! Miss Zorah. Ma'am," she bit her lip, trying to temper her excitement with courtesy, "If you told me we're going to storm Rannoch tonight, I'd still go."

"Alright..." she sighed, "I'm forwarding you some employment documents, already with the commander's signature of approval. Read through them, sign them, then forward them to the extra-net address at the bottom. If you have any questions, comm me and don't breathe a word of this to anyone else."

Lia was nodding the entire time, barely paying attention, thinking only of collecting her meager possessions and heading to what would be her new home for the duration of her Pilgrimage.

Tali continued, "Have your gear stowed on the ship as soon as possible. We leave at twenty-two hundred. And I should warn you, I'm a very uncompromising boss."

Somewhere distant in her mind, Lia had wondered about that, if Miss Zorah was as much of a taskmaster and she'd been led to believe. She had hoped that had changed since being reunited with her _nehya_, but it didn't matter either way. Nothing could stop her from completing her pilgrimage along side the galaxy-famous trio.

...

"How'd it go with getting the gear?" asked John, his sister striding up to meet him at the third clothing accessories store he'd been to in an hour. "All these damn stores carry is three-fingered gloves or ones that are too damn small..." He threw down the pair he'd been trying on.

"Yeah, asari have little hands," she said, "You should find a batarian clothing outlet. They probably won't recognize you as my brother. Shopping wasn't bad," she answered, "Mostly went for clothing. Garrus got a new visor, exactly like his old one if you ask me, and some software for his targeting systems. He and Jake also picked up some game that Joker and EDI insisted they play. Then Miri and Jake got some civilian clothes... Semi-tactical stuff, high quality, good for concealing things. He helped her sort the junk from the real-deal. Where's Tali?" she asked.

"She went off to get our newest quarian situated aboard the ship," he said, "Then she's gonna to meet up with Kal and Seera and head over to the restaurant at seventeen hundred. Who else went with you?"

Jane had forgotten about the new quarian crew member. While taking a young girl aboard might not have been the decision she'd have made, she couldn't argue with the logic behind it. Tali had made a fantastic addition to the crew, and if Lia was half the engineer that the Spectre's 'little sister' was, then it was probably the right call. She had signed the transfer papers without a second thought, giving the young woman a position in engineering under the experienced tutelage of Lieutenant Zorah. Her brother could have brought her aboard regardless, he was free to select whomever he wanted as part of his ground team, but only with Jane's approval would she also be granted a spot on the crew. Otherwise the girl would have been like Zaeed or their other newest addition, Kasumi Goto, acting as little more than a passenger between missions.

"Kasumi, Kelly, Seera, Kal, Gabby and Ken. Garrus was with me too, of course. He's taking our haul back to the ship right now. Miri and Jake were there, but they went back to the ship for dinner. Alone," she snickered, "I invited Zaeed and Mordin to come shopping, but Mordin rambled on about his experiments so I hung up on him and Zaeed just grumbled then burped, so I hung up on him too."

"Ha," he said, "sounds like you had a real 'girl's night out.'"

"It was!" she agreed, grabbing his suit jacket, "We ditched the boys when they wouldn't leave the fishing section of the sporting-goods store. So boring. I commed Tali to see if she wanted to join us, but she said she was busy. We'll get her next time. Seera didn't wan't to leave Kal's side for a second, but we convinced her."

"Yeah? Those two seem to be getting along quite well together. How'd you do it?" he asked.

"Kasumi and I each took an arm and pulled," she said, smiling, "Then we all had a nice long talk with her about how to seduce a man."

"Well, you're the expert," that earned him a punch to his shoulder. Without biotic amplification, Jane only managed to hurt her wrist and knuckles. "I'll talk to Kal a little and feel him out, and maybe we can get Seera out of the friend-zone. I'm just afraid that he likes the bachelor life a little too much. Who knows, we'll see how dinner goes. Did you get those supplies for Garner?" he asked, food suddenly on his mind.

"Took me a while to track down what I needed, but yeah," she said, nodding, "Got something for the doc, too. Oh, and I picked up some fish for my tank. You should think about getting some."

"Nah, I'll never remember to feed 'em," he said, checking the time on his omni-tool, "I'm gonna head over to the restaurant, it's almost time. You coming?"

"Yeah, be there in a bit," she replied, "I've got to meet up with Garrus first, but we'll be right behind you."

...

"Hi, we have a reservation under the name Shepard."

"Hmm... Are you sure? I can't seem to find it here," said the asari hostess. Her eyes scanned the terminal in front of her, highly polished, French-manicured fingernails grazing each haptic key as she typed. Typical of her species, she was the model of femininity, her hips a bit too slender for quarian tastes, perhaps, but still gorgeous. She wore an elaborately sequined evening gown, its teal color matching her eyes perfectly. The outer casing of the terminal she stood at appeared to be made of real wood, probably Terran, and matched the overall decor of the restaurant quite well.

The establishment had been founded only a year ago by a famous human chef interested in exploring dextro cuisine in his own style and expanding his culinary offerings to the galaxy. His local culture and tradition of fine dining came from a region on earth called _Parisian_, according to the extra-net translation Tali had read. She realized they must have had a huge amount of wealth there. The opulence around her was nothing like she'd ever seen. Ornate, tasseled cloths adorned everything, from the place settings, to the tables themselves, to the artificial windows giving views of the rolling hills of Earth. At least half a dozen utensils for eating were around each plate, probably made from some precious metal, along with multiple vessels for drinking, each one finely cut by hand. Keelah, _what the hell is wrong with one utensil for eating and one cup for drinking? Or Ancestors forbid, what about using your hands to eat once in a while?_

Across the dining area sat large hole in the wall, bordered with thick, carved stone, atop which was a mantle with various decorations, each a piece of artwork worth a small fortune in their own right. In the hole blazed a fire, not a holo, but one fueled by wood. The permit to do that on the Citadel, not to mention the necessary smog scrubbing equipment, could have bought the Fleet half a dozen used ships. Tali was glad that Lia wasn't here to see this. The whole spectacle was such a waste and it made her sick to her stomach. _No wonder the asari like this place so much..._

"Yes. Yes, I'm sure the reservation is there," she said nodding. _Though now I'm starting to wish it wasn't._ "My soon-to-be bondmate made it himself. He's got the confirmation saved on his omni-tool. It's for six."

The asari gave her a thin-lipped smile. "Oh, well you're here way too late then-"

"No, it's for six people," she interrupted the woman, "At seventeen hundred, local standard time."

"Mmm... No," she said, "I'm sorry, I just don't have it listed here. We couldn't possibly accommodate a part with that many... people. Maybe you should try the place on level thirty two, they're known for how accommodating they are," she finished, clasping her hands together and smiling.

"No, that's not possible," Tali said, shaking her head, "He's got the confirmation with him. He'll be here in a moment." The hostess just stood there, still smiling with her blunted, pearly teeth. Tali was baring her teeth too, but she wasn't smiling. She wished the asari could see it.

"Darling, a minute, please," Seera said, tapping her on the shoulder.

"I... Excuse us," she said to the hostess before turning to the marine, "What's up? Do you think that Shepard forgot to make the reservation?" she asked, second guessing her instincts.

"Well, it's possible, but no, I don't think that's what's going on here," replied Seera.

"Well then what is it? This is a human owned place, I don't think we'd find any racism here. It's probably just this asari _bosh'tet_. I think we should get the manager or something."

"I disagree, darling," Seera replied.

"You think?" she asked, starting to get nervous and ramble "I mean John picked this place out. He would have done his homework, would have known if they were like that here. Maybe it really is a computer glitch-"

"Ahem," the hostess interrupted, "Excuse me, but you all will have to step aside for paying customers. In fact, you all should probably just leave altogether."

"I'm going to kill that bitch," Tali hissed, taking a few steps closer to the asari. She had no intention of actually murdering the blue skinned woman, but she wouldn't mind beating her to within an inch of her life. While doing that might not improve her opinion of quarians very much, it would go a long way to making her think twice before treating them like crap. "Listen here, asari filth, I swear by the Ancestors-"

"What's going on here, guys?" John could see the confrontation brewing from twenty meters outside the entrance, and it didn't take a genius to figure out the reasons behind it. At this point the restaurant had already lost his team's business, which amounted to a lot of creds given their notorious drinking habits. Where things went after that depended on exactly how quickly the hostess decided to apologize for her behavior.

Tali turned to face her _inszel_, her fists still balled fists as he approached. She couldn't decide whether to feel relieved, proud, or shamed by her obvious willingness to strike the unarmed civilian. She was never very good at resolving unexpected situations with anything other than shy pleading or direct violence, and it pained her to have John witness either. "John, I-"

"It's alright, Tali," he said, planting a kiss on his favorite spot, just above her vocalizer on her visor. If possible, the hostess looked even more disgusted, her upper lip curling into a sneer, her head twisting away from them. Now that the human knew how fun and easy it could be to upset this woman, he had a hard time not taking it to the next level with some light over-the-suit foreplay. The young quarian had come to exactly the same conclusion, her hands impatiently roaming over his arms. She, too, loved every second of the discomfort she caused the asari, eagerly lapping up the disgusted glances she shot the couple. The Spectre turned to the would-be hostess behind the podium, "What seems to be the trouble?"

"Sir, I'm sorry, but," she swallowed hard and tried to regain her composure, "we don't seem to have your reservation in our computer," she replied while appearing to scroll through various lists on the haptic portion of her terminal.

"Really? That's okay, I've got the confirmation e-mail right here." His omni-tool sprung to life and after a second or two of typing he presented the glowing display to the woman. She took a step back from where the Spectre held it mere centimeters from her nose and scanned over its contents. She did so half heartedly, as if she already knew what information it might hold.

"Yes, yes it appears you did reserve it. But there must have been some kind of computer issue..." the hostess again averted her eyes as she spoke, concentrating now on her podium, "It doesn't seem to have transmitted you reservation to our records. Normally, I'd just let you all in- give you a spare table- but we're packed tonight and couldn't possibly do that. I'm sorry."

"I see. maybe we can help," he turned to the lithe young woman at his hip, "Tali, would you mind giving them a hand with their computer? We wouldn't want this happening to anyone else. Bad for business."

"Of course, John-"

"Oh, no, that won't be necessary," the asari interrupted with a wide smile that didn't reach here eyes, her hands and arms indiscreetly moving to cover the terminal's display as if it would make any difference to the quarian's expert hacking.

"I'm afraid it is," Tali shot back, "The commander has requested it, so it's going to happen. Deal with it." She took a step to the podium where the computer lay encased. She raised her hand and activated her omni-tool.

"Back off, suit-rat!" screeched the asari, instinctively retreating from the raised orange glow, its foreboding multiplied by the fact that its wielder was quarian. To the hostess, its appearance could be the precursor to anything from a simple data transfer to an amazingly lethal combat drone, and she had no idea what to expect.

Tali could only smirk at the insult. Although she didn't consider herself to be mean spirited, she felt a certain satisfaction at seeing the smaller asari shuffling around to keep the podium interposed exactly between them. The humor of the situation was not lost on Seera, either. Shrugging off the all too common slur, she side-stepped around the podium, omni-tool activated, both hands extended in an overly animated grabbing motion. The marine giggled devilishly as she cut the asari off, the besieged woman scampering away from the advancing duo like they were a pair of rabid varren.

John and Kal, however, did not take the blatant racism with as much cheer as the ladies did. Kal simply stood back, shaking his head, his arms crossed. He'd spent enough time around aliens and their galactic 'community' to not be surprised in the least.

The Spectre, too, had seen this before, always directed at his crew, specifically at the purple-suited engineer before him now. The first time it happened, some two years ago, he'd been too shocked to do anything about it. Tali simply turned walked away, mumbling to herself. Only when she had passed him with guilty glace, shame in her eyes, shame coming from causing her noble human host such embarrassment, did he finally snap out of his surprise and decide to do something about it. By then it had been too late; he had already blindly followed the girl for over a hundred meters in the opposite direction of the turians that instigated the affair. From that point on, he vowed it would never happen again.

"**The **_**fuck**_** did you just say?!**" he shouted, loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear, silence filling the establishment. Utensils dropped onto plates. One waitress dropped a tray of glasses, its contents loudly shattering on the floor. Slowly, silent whispers filled the room.

_A human with that thing? What does he think he's doing? She doesn't deserve him. _

_Eww... There's three of them. How droll._

_What does he think he's doing, defending her like that? She'll sleep with him either way- you know how they are._

_Oh my god, look at him! He's so handsome! But he's with her? What a waste..._

_A quarian? Maybe that guy's into slumming it. He must get off on charity cases or something._

"John, please," said Tali, concerned now that she had drawn too much attention to the Commander and his companions, "We should just leave, go someplace else." She wanted to run and hide, find some place to curl up and wait while everything blew over, but she couldn't do that, not with John there, not while he might need her help. Confrontations on the battlefield were one thing, easily dealt with, but social situations were something else entirely. This had gone from joyfully tormenting one asari racist to facing down the stares of an entire crowded room. There were some things she had no mechanisms to deal with effectively.

John's vision narrowed and the newly reinstated Spectre barely heard the girl's request. When he first became a Spectre, he swore he'd never abuse his above-the-law status, thinking he would only pull out his credentials when there was no other alternative. He felt like such a hypocrite, but he could see why they did it. Now he contemplated abusing his authority in a way that could be truly called controversial. At the moment, all he saw was a dining room full of asari, turians, and more than a few humans who really needed to die. Heaven help him; he was beginning to sympathize with Saren.

A conspicuously happy red-head sauntered unnoticed into the lobby. "He guys, are we eating or what?"

All heads in earshot turned to the newest arrival.

"What did I... miss?" she trailed off. Something seemed off to Jane. No one spoke above a low whisper and all eyes were on her. The feeling was familiar, and not in a good way. Like everyone else knew what was about to happen except her, and it was going to be big. Her brother's fiancé had a look of intense shame about her and had almost backed herself into a actual corner. She stood there, fingers intertwining mercilessly, head and eyes downcast. She kept glancing to the doorway of the restaurant like a trapped prey-animal while she visibly shook with nervousness. What could the poor girl done? What was so terrible that she was acting this way?

"I think they don't like quarians here," Garrus whispered to her after taking his place at her side. He surveyed the room until his eyes fell to John. For the first time since reuniting with his friend, he noticed the faint glow of his scars, visible even from where he stood just. The Spectre's trigger finger twitched, his right hand contracting and releasing, searching for the comfort that only a weapon could provide, a weapon that wasn't there. A blue aura surrounded him. Things could escalate quickly. "You're brother is pissed. We need to get him out of here. Just a guess," he added.

John took a menacing step into the dining room and even the most hardened turian veteran flinched away, many of the patrons all but abandoning their lavish courses and extravagant place-settings. A finger jabbing at each whispering patron in turn, he yelled, "All of you, shut the fuck up, right now, or so help me God I'll-"

"Nee, enough," said Jane, her voice stern and loud as she grabbed him by the arm. "We're done here. These pukes aren't worth the paperwork it'd take to kill 'em." His head shot to his sister, noticing her for the first time since she walked in. His expression softened at what he saw, but his scars and eyes remained alight. Ignoring the shocked faces of the diners, she moved her hand up to his shoulders and across his back, gently turning him away from the object of his hatred. He allowed himself to be led away as she walked to the front door.

Tali was used to it, the behavior of the crowd, their whispers, their repugnant, snide comments, their leering eyes, all filled with disgust for the pariah in the mask. They hadn't bothered her, not especially, they only reinforced the guilt she already felt. Guilt for what she knew was true, that she had somehow wound up with the greatest man in the galaxy and she didn't deserve him, not in the slightest. A humble, unassuming quarian girl had developed an intense affection for the finest male representative an entire species had to offer, and somehow, through pity, insanity, or simple ignorance, he had reciprocated. Ancestors, she was a lucky girl; she knew it and didn't need to be reminded of it.

Initially content to cower a few meters from his side, that all changed as he turned to walk out the door and she saw the unmitigated but impotent rage in his eyes. They had insulted _him_ they had hurt _him_, the pain they caused now splashed across his face, as real as if they all took turns shooting him in the gut. What they did to him would not, _could not_, be tolerated under any circumstances. _No one hurts John Shepard. Ever. _

That little mental switch inside her had just been thrown, the one that demanded caution be thrown to the wind and encouraged confrontation. The situation had gone from a social altercation to a violent one, and that was something she was very, very good at resolving. The trick, of course, was keeping any actual combat to a minimum. That would be hard, but John would want it that way, so for him, she would try.

"Dammit!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, "You all think I _don't know _I don't deserve him?!" In a fury she marched up to John and the captain, forcefully pressing her facemask, just above the vocalizer, into the man's lips. One three-fingered hand clamped onto his buttocks and the other wrapped around his shoulders. He instinctively returned the kiss with as much passion as he had. The patrons gawked but were too terrified to say anything. When a few dozen seconds passed and lips and mask parted, she stormed into the center of dining area, activating her omni-tool along the way. "Well, I got him, so _**fuck you all**_!"

Typing a few of the haptic keys that materialized above her wrist, she over-clocked her omni-tool, doubled its available amperage, and let loose an overload powerful enough to sedate three geth primes and a colossus. All around her, a bright blue electric discharge filled the room and expanded past the restaurant and into the walkway beyond. Every single person within a hundred meters suddenly found their electronics totally worthless. The computers that had mysteriously lost their reservation would never have the opportunity to lose another. Smoke billowed out of one or two omni-tools that were especially hard hit. A few patrons started shouting profanities or screaming. Tali calmly walked back to where John, the captain, and their friends waited, and together the group strolled out the front door.

"There's a levo-dextro place that serves a great curry on level twenty-one, block seventeen-C," Seera said to the group, then clarifying for Kal, "a human cuisine that Jane likes."

"Sounds good," said John. The rest of the group echoed his sentiment. Tali and John walked arm in arm. Garrus and Jane held hands. Seera eyed Kal expectantly, but he continued onward as oblivious as ever.

...

"Commander Shepard! A moment of your time!"

John followed the voice with his eyes and found a young-to-middle-aged reporter calling his attention. She appeared to be well dressed, wearing a red ankle-length office dress, something that had become fashionable about a year or two before the Alchera incident. Recognition dawned on him, and his sister, at about the same time. His gaze narrowed as he considered. Only a few minutes ago he would have told her to piss off and find someone else to bother, but Tali's presence had a remarkably calming effect on him. He ambled over to the reporter and her hovering camera while his crew followed.

"Khalisah Al-Jilani, Westerlund News. Would you consent-"

"I know who you are, Al-Jilani," he cut her off, "You did a hit piece on me two years ago."

"That's one way to look at it," she replied, "and I'm very glad you're back to talk about it with me. Would you consent to an interview?"

"Sure, why not?" he said, shrugging. Tali joined him at his right side, while Jane stood to his left. The reporter shrunk back in the presence of the female Shepard, her left eyelids twitching a bit as she did.

"Um, well," Khalisah cleared her throat before continuing, "reports were circulating before your disappearance that you and your quarian engineer were an item." She paused and John grunted. Jane pursed her lips and waited. "Now that you're back, I thought you should see what they're saying this time."

She held out a data-pad before the man and he took it. Its screen displayed a single window, the home page of the Thessia Oracle extra-net site. The headline read, _John Shepard Spotted With His Quarian Beau_, and below it the sub-headline read, _Is This The Right Image For Humanity?_

The Spectre kept reading, his sister looking over his shoulder as he did. When Tali tried to sneak a peek as well, he angled the pad away from her and said, "Earmuffs, Tali." She crossed her arms in defiance, but otherwise took the hint and turned off her audio pick-ups and faced away. He kept reading.

_If recent eye-witness accounts and holos from the Citadel are to be believed,_ _Jane Shepard, the female half of the Shepard duo, has found comfort in the arms of her long-term turian crew member, Garrus Vakarian, who rejoined her after the Shepards' two year absence ended. Turian/human relationships are becoming more and more common every day. These unions have gained galaxy-wide acceptance; not surprising when one considers that both turians and humans are counted among the superior races. _

_But what if she had instead fallen for one of the inferior races? Rumors have swirled around John Shepard and the quarian girl he keeps around him, many wondering-_

The tablet broke, its screen smashed, spider-webbed into a thousand tiny cracks. John hadn't realized he had been pressing that hard, but it was no great loss. He hadn't been interested in reading it anyway. "Huh," he said, handing back the now useless data-pad, "What're your questions?"

"You and Miss Zorah have been seen together," she said, "both disembarking your ship and spending the day out on the Citadel. There've been several obvious displays of public affection."

As she spoke, John and Jane shared momentary eye contact.

"You represent humanity before the galaxy."

The brother nodded to his sister.

"Do you think it's wise to be seen-"

A fist slammed into left side of Al-Jilani's face, landing neatly between her cheek bone and the orbit of her eye. John wouldn't hit a woman if he could help it, and besides, that's what sisters were for. Khalisah reeled at the impact, her feet leaving the ground before flying back to hit a wall hard and rebound off it. She slumped to the ground and remained there, catching her breath. Jane almost thought she'd killed the woman.

Al-Jilani slowly and uncomfortably got to her feet as the twins glowered down at her. Blood trickled from the reporter's face, drops landing on her very expensive and fashionable shoes. She wiped what she could from her face with a sleeve, red streaks displacing heavy make-up. She took a step back from the twins, the camera following obediently. When she looked up at the them, it was through mismatched eyes, the white of one now bright red from a burst blood vessel. She would be keeping that souvenir for some time, and would definitely feel it in the morning.

"You can't do this to me!" she screamed, "You're public figures the people have a right to know!" She started skulking away, holding her eye. "Suppressing the truth through violence has never worked," she called over a shoulder before issuing her parting shot. "Don't fuck with me, you two!"

"Whatever," said John. Tali looked to him expectantly and he nodded. Garrus joined Jane in an animated conversation about hand-to-hand combat. Kal and Seera started to wander back over from the window display of the clothing store they had pretended to be interested in.

Keying her omni-tool, admitting sounds once again, she said, "I don't even want to know."

"No, you don't," he replied, "It's nothing worth talking about.'

"Food?" she asked, chipper as ever.

"Shall we?" he said in response, holding his arm out for her. She took it and together the group continued on their way.

**Please review this chapter. **

**I hope to have the next installment out much sooner, but I think it will not be this long. I hope this one was worth the wait. Please let me know what you think. Also I am toying with the idea of updating more frequently with shorter chapters. Thoughts?**


	9. Carnival Of Rust

**Bioware owns the characters and everything else you can find in the Mass Effect Wiki. Calinstel owns 99.5% of the ideas behind the Quarians that I'm using. The rest is mine.**

**Big news! Soon I will be posting another chapter in my in-universe side-story, _Clean My Wounds_, involving Jane's unique history and Torfan.**

**Also! VenomRED never gave me permission to do this, so I will beg his forgiveness and hopefully he will grant it. Go to his latest chapter of FWAM as soon you are done reading and reviewing this story. It will tell you how you can check out his original fiction _Red Horizon_. I have read it and it's great!  
**

**Oh my, this turned out so much longer than I intended. I have no idea how this keeps happening. Please Fav, Follow, and Review if you like this. **

Chapter 9: Carnival Of Rust

"Hey commander, glad to see you!"

He looked up to see the cheerful yeoman giving him a wink as he stepped out of the elevator. He returned her greeting with a wave and a thin smile. Taking this as a sign of encouragement, the young woman began walking over to meet him.

"Did you enjoy your time on the citadel?" she asked, taking his hand. Finding it limp, she released it.

"Yeah, I guess," he said noncommittally, "I'm just gonna check my messages... I've got to get to a meeting in five."

"Oh, okay, good luck in there," she said, slightly disappointed at his disinterest. "You've got a new message automatically forwarded from your Alliance Navy account..."

John nodded to her and logged in to the terminal he shared with Jane. Looking at the first message in his inbox, he felt a growing pit in his stomach when he read the sender's address. He closed his eyes after reading the even more ominous subject line. "Edi, please disable the return-receipt function for my Cerberus message client."

"Done, commander," she said, "That function will be disabled on your account for the next twenty-four hours."

Opening his eyes, John rubbed his forehead and thought to himself. Activating his omni-tool, he commed his sister, "Jane, have you checked your messages since you got back from dinner?"

"_No, why?_" she asked.

"No reason. We have to talk after this next mission," he replied, closing the link. He began reading the message.

_From: Hannah Shepard__  
_

_Subject:_ _JOHNNY WHERE HAVE YOU AND YOUR SISTER BEEN?_

_Honestly, I can't believe you two! My XO has to bring me a fucking tabloid to hear that you two are alive? Then I hear it on the news, then from Hackett and Anderson, and I haven't gotten one word from either of my children?_

_You two took the time to talk to a reporter, one who's calling for your court marshal, Jane, and had the time to pick up two of your old crew-_

He skipped ahead.

_...and you obviously care so much about that damn psychotic quarian, so much more than your own mother and only living family, that you went to grab her up to go gallivanting around the galaxy together. I expect that kind of inconsiderate behavior from Jane, but you Johnny? And Jane, Garrus is a nice boy, but you would rather collect him than spare a minute to come visit your mother? _

Again he skipped ahead.

_...so I expect a reply to this immediately, as soon as you read this. And I have spoken to Hackett and he assures me that you can spare some time to visit your own mother. Let me know when you two have a free day, and be sure to bring your significant others. I will have questions."_

He sighed, closing the terminal and putting the message out of his mind. There was precious little he could do about it at the moment, and frankly he wouldn't want to deal with it even if he could. He turned, hiding his startled reaction to the yeoman almost pressing against him from behind. He could feel the woman's sweet breath on his neck and face, she stood so close. That sent his mind in a completely different direction, scrounging for solutions to an unwelcome, if flattering, little problem.

"Oh, Kelly, I forgot to ask," he said, scratching his neck and taking a step back, "Is there a way to sync my Cerberus account to my omni-tool? Or maybe get my messages forwarded there?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess..." she replied softly, "But it's not that big a deal to check them here, uh, or in your cabin, is it?"

"No it isn't, but I'd prefer to have it on my omni-tool. Make it happen."

"Aye, Sir," she replied, closing the gap and again standing a far closer to her commander than was professional. "Activate your omni-tool and hold it out for me, please."

John did as he was asked, his arm held out for the woman, its orange holographic interface alight. She steadied it by gently cradling his hand in her own, holding it like one might examine a precious and delicate artifact. It didn't make the man uncomfortable, exactly, when she started rubbing her thumb along her wrist, but he wished she'd stop and pretended not to notice when it continued.

She typed on his omni-tool, then on the terminal, then back to his tool. Just as she was about to finish, the elevator door opened, admitting Tali to the combat information center.

"I hope I'm not late for the meeting, I was just in engineering..." The quarian trailed off rather quickly at what she saw. John stood at his terminal, and next to him, very close, was the creepy-but-perky Kelly'Chambers. The Spectre smiled when he turned to her, nothing out of the ordinary there, but Kelly looked... embarrassed? The yeoman's postured shifted slightly under Tali's scrutiny.

"It hasn't started yet," said John, "we'll go in together. Kelly's just setting up my omni-tool so I don't have to keep stopping by here."

Kelly released the commander's hand and took half a step away from the man. "Tali," she beamed. "Glad to see-"

"Good," the engineer interrupted, speaking to John. "That should make things easier for you." She walked right up to the man, one hand wrapping around his back and the other falling to his waist. She brought her mask to his face and was delighted to receive a light kiss on the visor. Her human brought one arm around her toned back, his palm kneading into her, up and down the length of her spine. Her breath caught in her throat when she felt what his other hand did, running along her hip and behind her to cup her buttocks. Not content by that alone, he gave her a firm squeeze and started rubbing. Finally feeling satisfied, the pair slowly separated. The quarian glanced over a shoulder and smiled at the human red-head, the other woman's expression a combination of shock, jealousy, and... desire? _What a weirdo_, thought Tali.

The engineer leaned in between the two humans to examine John's private terminal. As discretely as possible, she began stepping between the them, casually giving the red-head a hard bump with a hip as she moved. Kelly squeaked and took a few of steps backward to regain her footing. "Oh, I'm sorry," said Tali, "I'm so clumsy. Please excuse me. You know John, I could have done that for you."

"Oh, I thought only Cerberus personnel could get into their servers." a thought occurred to him as he scratched his neck, "But you already hacked those, didn't you?"

"Of course, my love," she said, a smile in her eyes.

"Tali, I'm... I'm sorry, I didn't realize..." Kelly tried to speak, but the words caught in her throat at a glare from the engineer.

"What?" asked Tali, sharp enough to almost sound rude, "That John and I are together? No, never, not possible..." As she said this, her hand found its way to the man's inner thigh, "The thought, it just," she gave him a light squeeze, "repulses me."

"I'm sorry," said Kelly. She was being made the fool and she didn't appreciate it. Trying to bring some dignity back to her words, she continued, "It's just that your posture, your behavior, and your _hands_ suggest-"

"What could that possibly be suggesting?" she asked before Kelly could finish, voice dripping with sarcasm and still pawing at John, "I mean a young woman gets rescued by a dashing commander who lets her join his crew and then goes off to save the galaxy? How could she possibly develop any kind of interest in him?"

Kelly pursed her lips and looked down at her own terminal. "Excuse me, Sir, I believe my shift is over," she said before quickly stepping off to the elevator.

"Bye!" Tali called after the retreating woman.

...

"Right, then," said Jane as John and Tali filed into the conference room, taking their seats, "Looks like we're all here, so lets begin." Jane stood at the head of the table, and to her right, sat Miranda. To her left, Joker lounged in a well-padded massage chair, his hands behind his head. Mordin, Doctor Chakwas, Jacob, Kasumi, and Zaeed all sat around the middle of the table, along both sides. Her brother reclined in the chair directly across from her, at the far end of the table, to his right, Garrus, to his left, Tali. He waved his sister on while fishing out a small package from a pocket in his leather jacket.

"First order of business is rank," she said, earning something between a groan and a snort from Zaeed.

Kasumi made a small noise of excitement and clapped her hands, "I always thought it would be so cool to be in the military, but I was never one for all the rules and orders."

"John and I were reinstated in the Alliance, as I'm sure you know by now," she said, "and we have something called the 'chain of command' over there. It's an essential system that lets the mission continue in case something happens to the person in charge. Part of that means knowing the job of the person two levels higher than you, at least. There are no secrets on this ship, so that should be easy. You'll all be getting field commissions in line with your current positions or previous military rank. John?"

The Spectre opened the small package and dumped its contents on the polished conference-room table, shiny metal pieces softly chiming as they landed in a pile. "UNAS rank insignia," he said, sorting through the pile, "I thought these would look nicer than just painting a bunch of stripes on your sleeves and shoulders. You're not required to wear them, but this is an important recognition of your position aboard the _Normandy_. First up, Lieutenant Commander Shepard." He produced a small gold metal pin in the shape of a leaf and tossed it to his sister.

She caught it, examined it, and placed it in her pocket. "I'll keep my stripes, thank you."

"Fair enough," he said. He fished around for another insignia and withdrew one that looked like a pair of gleaming silver bars connected together. He pulled out two more exactly like the one before it. "These are for the ship's XO, the ground team's XO, and the pilot." He tossed one to each person as he called out their names. "Staff Lieutenant Lawson, Staff Lieutenant Vakarian, and Flight Lieutenant Moreau, respectively."

"Thank you, John," said Garrus, examining the small pin, "Your confidence in my abilities... It means a lot to me. I don't know what else to say." He began looking for a way to affix it to his armor, but gave up in short order. There was nothing he wore that the rank's short pins could penetrate. He could file them off and glue it to his collar if nothing else.

"Don't say anything," replied John, "Between your experience and your natural leadership abilities, you earned it."

Joker gave a loud laugh and pinned the rank to his cap, right in the center. "Looks like I'm in a three-way tie for the second highest rank on the ship!"

"Third highest," said Jane, smirking.

"What? Who else...?" Slowly, Joker followed his captain's eyes and turned to the person on his left. Everyone else did the same, while the object of their attention continued typing away on a data-pad, pretending not to notice. After a few seconds, she rolled her eyes, looked up at John with a smile on her face, and held out a hand.

John returned the smile and produced a very different insignia from the ones before. It was a stylized terran avian, most likely carnivorous, made of the same bright silver metal as the ones he gave to Garrus, Joker, and Miranda. He passed it to his turian executive officer, who passed it Zaeed, who placed in the open hand of Karin Chakwas.

"What rank is that?" asked Tali.

"She was a captain in the Systems Alliance," supplied Jane, still smirking, "And, unlike me, it's not just a title given because of her position. It's her actual rank."

"Thank you, Johnny," said the doctor, before addressing Tali, "it goes to show what they'll give you if you keep at your job long enough."

"And happen to be the best in the galaxy," added Joker. Karin smiled gently at the man and nodded her thanks.

Tali frowned at Joker. She was the one talking to Captain Chakwas, not him. A narrowed gaze joined the frown as she realized that Joker now outranked her aboard the ship. Wasn't she the commander of the engineering section now? She tried to recall what Adams' rank had been aboard the original _Normandy_. _How could John let some stupid space-jockey outrank me? He's never going to hear the end of this from me..._

"So, do we address you as 'Captain' now?" the quarian asked.

"You may," said doctor Chakwas, "The correct appellation would be 'Ma'am,' but Captain, Doctor, and Karin are all fine by me. Preferable, in fact. Just don't call me Mrs. Chakwas; that was my mother."

"I think this may be a dumb question," said Kasumi, looking around the table, "but please humor the one person in the room who hasn't had any formal military training," Miranda looked away as Kasumi continued, "How is it that Karin can outrank both the captain of the ship and the CO of the ground team?"

"Doctor Chakwas, not qualified to command a warship," said Mordin, "her expertise is in medicine. Can run an entire hospital, perhaps a medical ship. Rank awarded on that basis. When serving on a warship, she must submit to relevant authority, despite rank."

"Not how I would have put it, but yes," said the doctor, "and I must admit that being a captain gives me a certain leverage when one of these two," she pointed to the twins, "refuses treatment or misses a physical."

Several people in the room chuckled. John smiled and Jane nodded. The former pulled out two more insignia, this time single silver bars, as if the staff lieutenant rank had been split in two. He handed one to Tali and tossed the other to Jacob. "These are your ranks, First Lieutenants Zorah and Taylor. Tali, this is the direct equivalent of your rank in the Migrant Fleet Marine Corps. Jake, I think this is a promotion for you."

"Sure is," said the man, "thank you."

Tali grumbled, but said nothing. She pinned the bar to her _realk_ near where it attached to the front of her suit. She hated to think along those lines, but she figured that sleeping with her commander had to have been good for a promotion. On the one hand she knew, and was proud, that slimy tactics like that would never work on her _inszel_. On the other, it hurt knowing that she hadn't earned a higher rank in his eyes. Then again, when she considered that two-thirds of her platoon had died on Freedom's Progress because she couldn't control her platoon sergeant, and Ancestors only knew what would have happened if John hadn't been there on Haestrom, she was lucky to keep even that much authority. It meant she would have to redouble her efforts in engineering, try harder, and maybe succeed where she had previously failed. _Still though, it'll be a cold day in human hell before I call the man who killed my _saera_ and my _onyeh_, __'Sir.' That _hrarxa_ is lucky he's good enough at what he does that I don't arrange an accident and blame it on the AI._

"Two insignia left," said Mordin, noticing the gold leaf and the gold bar, "Based on experience and position, conclusion is that lieutenant commander rank is mine."

"Uh, no," said John, "That's my rank in the Alliance, so it stays with me. You get this one." He tossed Mordin the small gold bar.

"Second lieutenant?" he asked, "This rank, not commensurate with relevant position and experience."

"I disagree," said John, "Your position does not place you in command of any personnel, unlike the rest of the ship's crew, and you were a warrant officer in the STG, so this is technically a promotion." John shrugged. "And I couldn't find any of those ranks, besides."

Mordin nodded, mumbled something, placing the pin in a jacket pocket rather than wearing it.

"These are for you two," said John, passing a pair of insignia to Kasumi and Zaeed. They were both the same, three chevrons on top of each other. "You two are our newest non-commissioned officers."

"Thanks, Shep!" Kasumi said cheerfully, glad to have gotten anything at all. She immediately pinned it to her hood where it attached near her shoulder, mirroring Tali's placement.

"Same as my old rank," said Zaeed indifferently. He placed it in a pocket and lifted up his right shoulder pad, angling it so John could see. "Don't need it wear it though, already got the tattoo."

"Now that that's out of the way, onto other business," Jane said as she took her seat and picked up a data-pad. "First, I've got some requests to take care of personal matters. Those have been added to our schedule and will be taken care of in order of precedence. Right now we're heading to pick up two more recruits. The first is on Korlis, a Blue Suns occupied world. The guy's a krogan warlord. We might have some trouble there, so the commander will be using the whole ground team. The other recruit is on the prison-ship _Purgatory_. Cerberus paid a small fortune to get this con released into our custody. It's a simple pick-up. To save time, Miranda and I can manage that while you're all on ground."

"What if something happens while you're out there?" asked Garrus, "Not that you two aren't capable, but wouldn't it be better to have some back-up?"

"Let me guess," the captain replied flatly, "you're volunteering?"

"Yes-"

"Denied," she said curtly, "You're the ground team XO now. You need a damn good reason not to be keeping my brother's ass out of the fire. That's not good enough. Not my call anyway." she shifted her gaze to her twin.

John shook his head, "Sorry, but we need you Garrus. Just in case something were to happen to me. But he's right, Jane. You need more than just yourself and Miri. We can spare one body on the off chance that something happens. Zaeed knows the Blue Suns, so he stays. Our recruit is doing some kind of genophage, collector research, so Mordin stays. Tali..."

He glanced over at her. She met his eyes with a withering glare that said, in no uncertain terms, '_I'm only leaving you over my cold, desiccated body, and even then it's questionable_.'

"Tali stays," he said, "That leaves Jake and Kasumi. Volunteers?"

"I'll do it," said Jacob quickly, "that'll also give me some time to get the new heavy weapons operational."

"After that," continued Jane, "we'll swing by to pick you guys up our way to Illium, where we'll get our last two recruits. Three if we can find Liara. Then we'll take care of one Vido Santiago," she nodded to Zaeed and received one in turn, "and right about that time, one mister Donovan Hock will be holding a dinner party. Miss Goto and I will be in attendance."

Kasumi smiled and gave another little clap. "I've got the perfect outfit for you, Jane. I can't wait to see you in it."

"I'll bet," she replied, resisting the urge to sneer at the thought of whatever Kasumi intended. "We can also expect more opportunities to hunt down the collectors. Our ultimate goal is to find a way to defeat them, to take the fight to their base of operations. Mordin?"

"Indeed," he said, "Will not bore you with details, but have successfully developed a countermeasure to their swarms."

"Excellent news," said John, "Now we just need to catch them in the act."

...

Zaeed took the first leap off the shuttle, running to the nearest cover a few meters away. Garrus followed close behind. "This place is a right dump, in'it? Blue Suns sure know how to pick 'em."

"I'd say that's an accurate assessment," replied the turian, looking through his scope. He turned to where John and Tali kneeled behind a rusted hunk of metal, "I don't see anything yet."

"Alright, let's move," said John, "Slow is steady, steady is smooth, smooth is fast." They scrambled to wall on their right, Massani taking the lead, followed by Tali and John, then Mordin, and finally Garrus covering the rear. Kasumi took a position fifty meters to their left and just ahead, her tactical cloak giving only the faintest shimmer of her presence. John gave the signal to advance, the team members leaving a fifteen meter gap between each other, the exception being Tali, who stayed as close to John as possible.

A few hundred meters of clear traveling, and the group's anxious boredom lifted with a pair of mercs coming into view.

"Looks like an observation post," said Kasumi, breaking into a mad sprint. Before she could broadcast her intentions, a pair of shots rang out, tearing through the men's chests. Staggering, but not yet down, a dozens more rounds tracked the men as they fell. Kasumi skid to a halt, not even halfway to their position, her charge now pointless.

"Well, thanks for saving me the trouble, guys," she said, sarcasm in her voice.

"No problem!" yelled Tali through the comm.

Kasumi began smiling with a half-formed snappy retort when she noticed a third merc, not quite dead. Far from it, in fact. "Hey, Shep, got a live one here. Unarmed, possibly hurt," she said, taking a step back and pushing herself flat against a crate, "No one else around."

John and Tali crested the hill and walked right up to the prostrate man, stopping only a dozen paces away. Silently, Kasumi circled to his side. "Information. Now," said John, holding his Revenant level with the merc's chest.

"Shit. Shit. Won't stop bleeding... I'm gonna... Son of a bitch!" the man stammered.

"He's faking it," said Tali, loud enough for the man to hear. She turned to the staggering mercenary then back to John, "and he seems to be confused. I distinctly heard you say you wanted information." A quick stock-strike to his head with her shotgun and he found himself back on the ground, screaming. "Do you think it will stop bleeding now?" she asked the merc.

John grunted and lowered his weapon. "Garrus. Search and cuff him."

The turian happily obliged, picking him up and half carrying, half dragging the weeping man to a safe location. Inside a minute, the merc lay prone with his hands secured behind his back, no weapons having been found. Garrus held the man's comm unit in a hand, ready to smash it when the time came.

John walked up to him, Tali strolling even a few steps closer. Cheek to the ground and looking away, he tried to turn his head to face the approaching couple. Garrus stopped him with a hand, pressing his head into the dirt for added emphasis. "Let's try this again," said John, "My people's lives are on the line here, and so is yours," that last bit was a lie, but a necessary one. "In one hand, I'm holding a medi-gel tube. In the other, I'm holding a pissed off quarian with a shotgun. Information. Now." Tali brought a boot to the back of his neck and slowly pressed down.

"Wait, please! I'll tell you anything you want, please don't kill me..." he begged between sobs.

Tali removed her foot from the man. On a secure channel, she commed her _inszel_, "I'm starting to feel bad, John. He just pissed himself, I can smell it."

"Yeah, I can too," he said using the same channel, "He needs to hydrate better." To the man, he said aloud, "Talk, then. We don't have all day."

"Okay, well," he began, "about three hundred meters ahead through that scrap, there's an old beat-up building. There's Blue Suns and retarded krogan everywhere. Inside the building there's even more. At the top is Okeer and Jedore. He's been breeding the krogan, and we shoot the rejects. She wants to use the krogan for her personal army. That's all I know... Please let me live."

Pleased with the man's compliance, John was about to administer the medi-gel when a voice called from the radio in Garrus' hand. "_Outpost four, Jedore wants us to move. We need coordinates on that krogan pack._"

"I want your friends gone, understand?" he whispered to the merc. Garrus leaned down to dangle the radio in front of the man's face.

"Uh... Patrol? The last group dispersed. Lost sight five minutes ago," he said into the comm.

"_Dispersed? Jedore will be pissed. She wanted a show._"

"You asked for a report, you got it. Dispersed," he all but yelled.

"_Understood. Returning to the labs._"

"Get rid of it," John said to Garrus, a finger pointing at the radio. The turian crushed the device and threw the remnants as far as he could. The Spectre then applied the medi-gel to the man's wounds and got up to leave.

"Hey, wait! You're not going to leave me here, are you?" he asked the Spectre.

"Yeah," said John, "We can't have you running and telling your friends about us, so it's either this, or kill you. You pick."

"Yeah, okay..."

"Be thankful for what you've got. I'm not even putting a bag over your head," said John, smiling. It sounded like a joke, but it wasn't. The only reason he hadn't done it was because the man knew where they were going anyway, and there was only one route to get there. "But I should probably gag you," added John. "Garrus?"

"With pleasure," replied the turian, pulling a roll of all-purpose adhesive tape from his pack.

"What a little bitch," said Zaeed, resuming his place at the front of the queue, "He'd never have made it in my day. Shoulda killed 'em if ya ask me."

...

"Commander, we're docked with the _Purgatory_," said Joker over the ship's comm.

"Glad to hear it, be up there in a bit." she said, turning back to the newest engineer. She'd been seeing how well the girl fit in with the rest of the crew, observing from up against the terminal that both resident quarians shared. Frequently, the young woman could also be found climbing through conduit, but not at the moment. In between idle conversation about the irony of completing one's Pilgrimage with Cerberus, she had been quizzing the girl on engineering knowledge when Joker's call came in. Considering that it wasn't likely she'd seen a ship this advanced before, Jane thought it a very important thing to do. So far, she felt quite impressed with both her knowledge and Tali's teaching abilities.

"Yer, wastin' yer time, Captain," Kenneth called from his post, "The lass knows her stuff. She's smart. Good in training too."

"Really?" Jane asked, an idea forming in her head, "You're on John's ground team. How do you like training with the commander and Lieutenant Zorah?"

"It's fun!" she said, bouncing on her toes, "The Lieutenant's physical training is tough, but I can keep up-"

"She's the only one who can!" interrupted Donnelly, at the expense of a soft backhand to the shoulder from Daniels.

"-and it's really fun training with John," she said, her smile so bight it dimmed her eyes, "He's taught me _so_ much."

"John, huh?" Jane gritted her teeth. Her voice lowered an octave as she continued, "_Commander Shepard_ is an expert in his field, so that's not surprising."

"Right!" she yelped, surprised at herself, eyes widening instinctively. She looked away and rubbed her mask with a hand to hide her embarrassment. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," said Jane, "Listen. How'd you like to come on this pick-up with me? It's not much; we pick up some criminal named Jack and bring him back here. There probably won't be any excitement, but it'll give you a chance to get off the ship and stretch your legs."

"I'd love to!" she exclaimed. This would be her first opportunity to be a part of a real combat team. She desperately wanted to see what armed mercs were like up close, without the fear of getting yelled at or taking a beating. "What do I do? Meet you at the airlock?"

"Yeah. Go see Jacob and get a pistol first. Just in case."

...

Jane's voice sounded as harried as she felt. "Miri, we've got trouble. Up to a dozen Blue Suns have us pinned down, prisoner transfer area, time now, small arms and a few man-portable rockets. We're gonna try to make our way to Jack's holding unit. Get some people here, ASAP."

"On it," she replied, "we'll be at you location as quickly as possible. Keep me updated." She closed the connection and activated the ship-wide comm.

...

From her omni-tool, Miranda activated the ship-wide alarm, sounding general quarters. A boatswain's whistle shrieked throughout the deck as she marched from her office to the elevator.

Edi's voice sounded over the public address system, loud and uncompromising, "_General quarters, general quarters, all hands, man your battle stations_."

Crew cleared the mess area _en masse_, dropping their meals and data-pads, running to their assigned areas, as the door closed behind the executive officer.

An alarm droned just as the elevator opened to admit Miranda onto the second deck, continuing for another half-dozen seconds. Miranda covered her hands over her ears to block out the piercing noise, while the AI began to repeat the call to general quaters. "That'll do, Edi, that'll do," Miranda said as she stepped into the armory. The woman opened her omni-tool and set it to ship-wide address. "All non-essential personnel report to the armory immediately. This is not a drill. I say again, all non-essential personnel report to the armory. This is not a drill."

"Okay Miri," asked Jacob, "What the hell is going on?" He had a pretty good idea, at least enough to know what was expected, betrayed by the rifles he diligently pulled from an arms-locker and placed in a row on a work-bench. One by one, he expanded them, did a functions check, and set them down. Across the armory, every locker had been opened, their typically closed doors now flung apart and exposing a myriad of arms and equipment.

"The captain and Lia are in trouble," she said, picking up and strapping one of the collapsed weapons to her back, "They're pinned down and we're going to get them out."

Jacob nodded as he stepped around the table to open the ammunition locker, withdrawing two cases of thermal clips and setting them on another table. "Heavy weapons and pistols?" he asked, bending to retrieve another couple of cases.

"You and I will take our normal kit, plus missile launchers," she replied, squeezing behind Jacob as he went to fetch more cases of thermal magazines. "Just rifles for everyone else. I don't think I trust their aim with more than that." She gave his shoulder a light squeeze as she passed, as much of a reassurance for him as it was for her. Kelly arrived just as Miranda made her way to the armor locker. "Here, Yeoman, take this," she said, holding out a simple ballistic vest to the woman. Displaying typical black and white Cerberus colors, but with the chest emblem scraped off and an Alliance one glued over it, it would protect her chest, back, shoulders, groin, and neck but no more. An integral shielding system made up for the lack of additional coverage. "Take a helmet from there, too," said executive officer, pointing to another locker.

The petite woman took the armor and had no trouble getting it on and cinching it tight around her. She snatched up a helmet from the lower-most shelf where they kept the smaller ones and donned that as well. Still clueless as to what was going on, she would have shaken with nervousness were the activity around her any less hectic. She had trained for situations like this many times before, both when she joined Cerberus and aboard the _Normandy_, practice at repelling boarders and such, but doing it for real was a whole different matter. Merely thinking about it got her adrenaline flowing, her stomach going queasy, and her major muscle groups turning loose. She tried three times to hit the adjustment controls for her helmet before succeeding, the finer movements of her fingers having become sloppy with anxiety. "What do I do now?" she asked, just as more people started entering the armory. She dreaded the answer, silently praying that Miranda's next words were anything but '_Get a gun._'

"Get a gun," said replied, "load up on thermal magazines, then help pass out weapons and gear to everyone."

Jacob handed the woman an M-8 and half a case of magazines, enough to fill her weapon and every pouch, pocket, and compartment of her armor. She ambled over to the helmet locker just in time to assist a newly armored Sergeant Gardner. Judging him to be an extra large, she handed him a set of head-gear taken from the upper-most shelf, saying, "Head over to Jacob for your weapon."

He thanked her with a curt nod and a broad smile before walking over to Lieutenant Taylor. The mess sergeant had never been too keen on sharing his background, but Kelly could guess that he had been quite a soldier in his youth, perhaps ending his career with age or injury, forced into cooking when his specialties lay elsewhere. Whatever the case, it seemed to the young woman that their chef was back in his element and loving every minute of it. Confidence like that, even if only a simple smile in the face of looming danger, made the woman feel more at ease. She made a mental note to stick close to him when the bullets started flying and thank him in person if she got out of this in one piece.

As soon as Gardner walked away with his helmet, two more crew took his place beside the locker, looking to the yeoman for their equipment.

"What's goin' on then, lass?"

"Stop asking questions Kenneth. They'll tell us when they're ready. Take your brain-bucket and let's go."

...

"Fine," said John, looking to the krogan in the tank, "we'll take him with us."

A burst of electronically distorted laughter interrupted his conversation with the warlord. All eyes turned to Tali. "Sorry," she said, casually side-stepping over to Kasumi, and whispering, "How could you ask me that at a time like this?"

"What?" the thief feigned surprise, "I really am curious how they got him into that armor. He was grown in that tank, right?"

John gave the pair of whispering young women a mild scowl and turned back to Okeer, just in time to hear the rooms public address system, and the person he presumed to be Jedore. "_Attention! I have traced the Krogan release. Okeer, of course. I'm calling 'blank slate' on this project. Gas these commandos and start over from Okeer's data. Flush the tanks!"_

"Gas!" said John, yelling it two more times out of habit, a response to the thick white mist billowing from nozzles set in the ceiling of the lab. As he already wore an enclosed helmet, he ran to shut down the release valves, instructing Tali to do the same. Of those not already wearing masks, Mordin had his on the fastest, after which he pulled out his omni-tool to analyze the compound. Garrus, Kasumi, and Zaeed all had their breathing apparatus on shortly after, each holding their breath until they were properly affixed.

"You're all wasting your time, especially you, salarian," said Okeer, coughing. "There is no antidote for that agent, not as long as you have to breath oxygen, and you will not be able to prevent the release from here. Get down to the growth-room and shut off the gas at the controls. It will went the room automatically once it's off. I have redundant organs and will be fine..."

"Let's go," said John, waving his team on.

John hit the control and the team entered the massive room, almost a warehouse, with Jedore still barking commands from the far side. Tanks lined the walls, a walkway behind them, each containing a single krogan warrior. In the center of the room, a recessed area stood between John's raiding party and the woman, like a moat guarding a besieged stronghold. Crossing that kill-zone, and the YMIR that patrolled it, would mean certain death for anyone, except perhaps...

"Kasumi," John called as he crossed the threshold. He pointed to Jedore and her elevated position across the room, "Take her out and shut down that gas."

"On it Shep," she replied at a full sprint, "Going silent."

John crouched behind one of the massive tanks as the YMIR opened fire with its auto-cannon. "Garrus, Tali, take down that mech." A succession of blue flashes erupted from the war-machine, followed by the tell-tale pings of gunfire hitting its mark. "Everyone else, the krogan. Positive identification, people! We have a person out there!"

"Not anymore," said Kasumi, materializing at the man's shoulder.

John looked to where he'd last seen Jedore. Although her cover obstructed his view, his HUD's targeting system could no longer identify any life-signs in the area. He thought he saw something dripping through the raised grating of the floor, gently spotting the ground below.

He would have patted the woman's back, had he not needed two hands to fire his weapon. His voice took on a tone of mild disbelief. "Excellent Job."

"It was nothing, Shep," she replied, joyful and smiling, "just a little overload for her tech-armor and there's nothing between her pretty little throat and my knife."

John returned the smile with raised eyebrows and a nod. A normal person might have been shocked at what she had done, or the way she did it, but it was no different than what he or Garrus frequently did, taking lives while protected through the power of concealment. If anything, slitting throats gave the victims even more dignity in death; the Spectre's victims were often so far away they never lived long enough to hear the shots that killed them. If honor could be awarded for risk and courage, then the way Kasumi placed herself close enough to her prey to actually feel their last heartbeat meant she was certainly more honorable than he. By that metric, of course, both Tali and Jane rated highest of all for the way they charged into the fray, facing the enemy head-on, looking them in the eye as they unloaded at close range.

That all amounted to pure nonsense as far as John was concerned. Death was death, regardless, a sad necessity when no alternative existed. Either way, of one thing he felt sure: it took a special kind of woman to kill for a living.

A small explosion rocked the group as a concussive shot breached the YMIR's power core, the gargantuan mech's final rounds directed not at John's team, but the head of the last krogan berserker. Tali's hack had ensued that the beast had spent most of its time tearing through its own allies, while ignoring the damage the team wreaked on it.

In all, less than two minutes had passed since entering the room and clearing it of opponents.

"John!" called Tali, "Alarms in the lab. We have to get back there."

"On it," he replied, the rest of the team joining him at running for the stairs.

"_Commander_," interrupted Edi as the Spectre reached the first step, "_I have limited access to lab systems though the comm buoy network and your omni-tool. According to scanners, toxin concentrations in the room are sufficient to provide forty-two times the lethal dosage to a krogan, given a two minute exposure window. Okeer's personal life-signs are failing rapidly. I recommend haste."_

It wasn't until John reached the second flight of stairs that the base's automated security system informed them that the venting finally begun. Another half-second to the top of the stairs and the team stormed into the room, toxic gas be damned.

"Life-signs, nonexistent," said Mordin, "Mister Okeer is dead."

...

In pairs and small groups, the assigned crewmen made their way to the airlock door, the line of armed personnel stretching halfway down the hallway leading to the combat information center. Many had been woken up from their rest, but a blaring alarm, the call to general quarters, and being handed a loaded weapon did more wonders that caffeine hadn't been able to accomplish in recorded human history.

While it seemed like hours had passed since the executive officer had called on the _Normandy_ to defend her captain, only three and a half minutes had passed when Miranda, Jacob, and Kelly walked to the center of the hall. With a nod from the raven-haired woman, Kelly took her place at the end of the line. Thinking better of it, she located Gardner and squeezed in behind him.

"The captain and crewman Vael have been attacked," Miranda explained, "I'm forwarding a layout of the _Purgatory_ to your HUDs. Their transponders should show up. Right now they're making their way to the holding area for Jack. We're going to support them as best we can."

There were murmurs of apprehension and disbelief among the crew, both from what was expected of them and at the captain's actions.

"Why is the captain bothering to pick up some felon? Why doesn't she just make her way back here?" asked one marine stand-in.

"Yeah, why are we risking our necks for some criminal?" asked another, "We can't do this. This isn't like repelling a boarding-"

"As you were, Crewman!" shouted Jacob, "Because the mission comes first, that's why. Even if it gets a little too hot for you." He began pacing up and down the hall as he spoke, looking each crew member in the eyes as he passed. "Nothing's changed, not at all. You're gonna be in the shit just as bad aboard ship as on ground when we find the collectors, probably more. Only difference is now you're gonna to have to put on your big-boy pants and do something besides staring at a terminal all day," he said passing Kelly, "or preparing meals," he passed Gardner, "or fixing engines," he walked by Daniels and Donnelly, the pair holding hands. "How do you think Lia feels? Out there with no armor and only a fuckin' pistol? She's a damn little girl, just got here from playing with Barbies or whatever on the Migrant Fleet. Now she's getting shot at and having to take lives. She's not complaining. She's not running," he didn't know that, but it needed to be said. He pointed dramatically at the air lock, "She's covering the captain's ass and completing the damn mission. Now suck it up and drive on, Ooh-Rah!"

"Ooh-Rah!" the crew thundered in unison.

"At ease," said Miranda, once roar died down, "You've all trained for this. You know what to do. This is exactly like repelling a boarding party if you consider that the _Purgatory_ is our ship and the Blue Suns are the boarders. The section heads are your squad leaders. Follow them, remember your training, and you will survive. Supply, are you up?"

"Yes, Ma'am, six present," said Gardner.

"Engineering?" she said, looking to Gabriella.

She glanced at Kenneth and squeezed his hand a little tighter, "Yes, Ma'am. Five present."

"Admin?" she said.

There was no response. Not immediately. Kelly began looking to her left and right, up and down the queue, biting her lip behind her visor. One could see her lips moving as she counted.

"Miss Chambers," said Miranda, her inflection enough to end Kelly's search and force her attention to the executive officer. "Yes, I mean you."

"We're good, Ma'am. There's four of us," she replied with a chipper confidence she didn't feel and a smile so insincere it hurt to look at.

Other sections reported in. A pair of armorers and half a dozen masters-at-arms accounted for Jacob's section. Two gunner's mates, who normally worked with Garrus, now found themselves under the leadership of Yeoman Chambers. A physician's assistant, a nurse, and two medics assigned to the infirmary under doctor Chakwas were divided amongst the ad-hoc teams. When all had been said and done, another minute and a half had passed, more precious time wasted. Miranda vowed the entire crew would practice this daily until they could do it twice as fast.

The executive officer made her way to the front of the queue near the air lock. "Edi, let's do this."

...

"Crap," said John, taking off his helmet.

He scratched the back of his neck as he thought to himself. He didn't want to tell Jane that he'd gotten their recruit killed. He'd never live it down. One simple mission, assault a Blue Suns camp and retrieve a single man, and he failed at it. A sigh parted his lips as he again examined the krogan in the tank. Tali approached him silently and began rubbing his back, the contact instantly brightening his mood.

"We'll take this one instead," he said, "If Okeer's to be believed, we can use him."

"Not advisable," said Mordin, "no way to know what instruction he had during growth process. Could be hostile, violent to non-krogan."

John set his jaw, determination in his voice, "That's fine. Then we'll kill him." He activated his omni-tool and commed the _Normandy_. "Normandy, this is Shepard, over."

"_Commander, this is Joker, go ahead_."

"Okeer is a no-go, but we have a package that needs retrieval. And he's a big one."

"_Roger, that, Commander. We're tied down here at the Purgatory, and I can't give you an ETA. Best estimate is three to four hours. Do you require immediate evac_?"

"No, we're good," sighed John, "What about you? What's the hold-up?" asked John, afraid to hear the answer, afraid for his sister. Time began to slow.

"_So far, so good. The mercs here tried to betray us. Nothing our people can't handle, though. I'd come pick you up but by the time we got back, it would be over_."

"Alright, see you soon. Out here," he said, cutting the connection. He turned to the group, "You heard it, we'll be here for a while. Garrus, Mordin, Zaeed, go get that merc we captured and bring him here. We'll release him once we get everything loaded and we're ready to leave." The trio nodded and started off, back the way they had come.

"And what do we do?" asked Kasumi.

"We wait," he answered with a shrug. "Talk, I guess."

"Since we're done with the mission and all," said Tali, both hands gesturing as she spoke, "I have a question."

Her tone made John weary and Kasumi grin. "Go ahead," the man said.

"What the _der'vak_ were you doing with Kelly when I walked into the CIC before the meeting?" she asked.

Kasumi snorted with laughter as John rubbed his eyes and forehead.

She continued, "I mean you were standing awfully close together, far closer than you should have been."

"Tali, I think she had a thing for me-"

"I can tell," interrupted the quarian.

"-but she's definitely been set straight on that matter, wouldn't you agree?" he asked.

"I can vouch for him, Tali," added Kasumi, "I was there the whole time. He was as uncomfortable as a salarian in a room full of hungry krogans. And I think you know he was relieved to see you."

"Yes, that's true, and I'm always happy to chase other women off for you." She placed a hand on his chest, stroking his armor. "Just don't let it happen again or I"ll be forced to mark my territory."

John chuckled, "What are you going to do, pee on me?"

This ignited another flurry of laughter from the thief, so hard her eyes began to water. It took a minute for her to catch her breath.

Teasing, Tali pretended to be confused, "I don't get it, that seems disgusting. And the scent would simply wear off. I'd have to pee on him, like, every day."

Kasumi continued laughing and struggling for air. John simply grunted as his _inszel_ continued to rub his chest.

"I mean, do you think that would work?" the quarian asked, quite happy with the discomfort she caused John, "Can you all smell that well?"

"I don't know," said Kasumi, just beginning to regain her composure, "Maybe..." another deep breath, "Maybe you should _try it and find out!_" At this, the thief burst into another round of hysterics.

"But seriously," said Tali, "in some ancient quarian cultures, the females would mark the male they selected for bonding by biting them here," she started rubbing John's armor at the large muscles between the base of his neck and his shoulders. "That way, if another female was interested in bonding with the male, she knew what kind of a fight she was in for based on the size of the scars. I've been told I'm quite well-endowed," she finished by winking at John.

The man crossed his arms and nodded, sure she was putting him on, "Uh huh, I don't buy it."

"What part?" She asked, taking some genuine offense that John might have been referring to the size of her teeth, "Maybe I made it all up. Or maybe clan Zorah was part of that culture, and keeps the practice alive to this day. The point is, you don't know," she poked him in the chest, smiling, "Do you really want to find out?"

"Dunno," he said, stroking his chin and grinning mischievously, appearing to consider his options, "Sounds to me like I can get the best of both worlds."

"Fine," she said with a devilish smile, wrapping her hands around his neck and bringing him close enough to whisper, "I've always wondered what you taste like."

...

Clearing a room with only two people wasn't generally a sane thing to do, especially when one of them had never done such a thing before. John had perhaps given the girl a single full-scale holographic practice session using the technique. No where near enough to make a go of it. Instead, as the pair approached the door to the room above Jack's holding area, she waved Lia into left hand corner of the frame.

"Stay there Lia. I got this," she said, "Don't turn that corner until I tell you. You know the deal. If I die, run for it."

The quarian merely nodded in recognition, glad to stay put, out of the line of fire until she was told to do otherwise.

Jane slapped the haptic interface and rolled to right, a hair too slowly. The shot caught her shields at the back of her head, mid-roll. Destabilized from a blow so high on her center of gravity, and while moving, she fell to the ground.

She knew there would be a follow up shot in less than a second. Then another. And another. Unless she could get up, or at least roll over in time and put some rounds down range, there was nothing stopping the shooter from emptying a magazine into her. Her outstretched hands hit the ground first, controlling her fall and allowing her to pivot around. Her behind landed just as her shotgun began to align with the doorway, its arc set to take it in roughly the direction of the unknown assailant.

The fall had taken too long. It was too late. Just enough time had passed for whoever it was to draw a bead on the supine captain. A shot rang out and Jane closed her eyes.

...

Lia clutched her pistol in both hands, the weapon shaking against her chest. Breath escaped her mask in wet, heavy gusts, her chest expanding and contracting in rapid pulses. Hyperventilation would have already set in had the quarian's suit and mild cybernetics not already been regulating her blood-oxygen levels. They also came equipped to deal with bodily waste. Fortunate, since her bladder and bowels were now empty. Keelah_, Ancestors, what have I done? Please get us out of this alive! I swear, I'll build an alter to you. I'll attend services every week if no one gets hurt. Anything. I don't want to die. Mom, Dad, please-_

She noticed her captain palming the door's interface out of the corner of an eye. The time for thought had ended. The door responded to Jane's touch much too quickly, almost as if the lock had been cycling before she even hit the control. _No, the door didn't respond to the _captain's_ touch. Someone activated it on the other side._

Lia held her omni-tool outstretched, crossing its interface just beneath her firing hand and the pistol it tightly seized. An overload charged and ready, she could slam her weapon's grip onto the tool in an instant, all without ever taking her muzzle off the target. She quickly stepped from the corner and turned to face the door just as the first shot rang out. It hammered Jane to the ground.

Her body acted without thinking, a hiss escaping though clenched teeth. One side step and the quarian straddled her falling captain, bringing an already raised Carnifex directly in line with the gunman's torso. The Spectre hadn't even hit the ground when Lia slapped the weapon's grip onto the omni-tool and pulled the trigger at the same time.

The man crumpled to the floor. He didn't go flying, he didn't fall backward. He collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut. It took Lia a few seconds to process what she saw. Lia, of clan Vael, daughter of Tara and Dak, had planned and carried out the death of a fellow sentient being. Hands limp, her pistol clattered against the hard floor.

Wobbly legs gave way and she found herself on hands and knees. The girl would have sobbed, but for the pressure in stomach. Vomit bubbled up from her throat to coat the inside of her mask.

...

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Jane. She lifted the discarded weapon and secured it to her hip. Slowly she approached the retching girl and rubbed her back. "It's okay, Lia, it's okay. You did the right thing. Don't think about it right now. We have to keep moving."

Gradually, the heaves subsided and she regained her footing with some help from her captain.

"Do you need a minute to clean up?" she asked, "What should I do to help?"

"There's nothing you can do," Lia replied, shaking her head, "I'll... I'll be... okay. The mask can flush and dry itself." She needed to push her feelings deep down inside her, at least for the time being. She could wait until she rested comfortably in her bunk to scream herself purple in the face. Weariness in her eyes, she balled one hand into a fist and pressed it against a hip. With the other motioned for her weapon. "We do need to get going," she whispered.

"Right," said Jane. She held out the weapon for the girl, presenting it handle-first. Lia reached for it, hesitating for only an instant before taking it. The Spectre had to hide a creeping smile at seeing the young woman's resilience in the face of psychological trauma. Jane still remembered the first time she was sure that she had killed someone, no matter how hard she tried to repress it. It would be no different for Lia. "We've got to get Jack out of there. Can you hack their lock-down?"

"I'll try, Ma'am," said Lia, raising her omni-tool over the control terminal. "Ma'am, there's no way to open individual cells without the block supervisor's key card. I can activate the emergency release, but that'll free all the prisoners."

"Do it," she said with a nod. A ship-wide escape, and with luck a riot, might keep the Blue Suns off their backs. There might be a way to mitigate the ensuing chaos, however. "If you can lock down the shuttle bays to stop them from escaping, do that too."

"Done, and done," said Lia, a hand finishing its last few key strokes. "I also locked down the escape pods, just in case. I can release them at any time."

"Good thinking..." She would have said more, but the sight their newest recruit proved quite the distraction.

Seeing her pause, Lia turned around to follow the woman's gaze. "Jack... Is a woman," She said, "Do all of you look like that under your clothes? It's beautiful."

"Huh?" Still distracted, it took her a second to recall what Lia had just asked. "Oh, no. Not all of us. Do you?"

"Nah, just our _faysakt_. They look like lines on our skin," she explained, "They collect pollen and other things... Wow, she looks pissed."

"That's an understatement."

As the pair looked on, Jack broke free of one of her shackles, then another, and finally her collar restraint. In the blink of an eye, the woman charged a trio of YMIR mechs, laying waste to one with a biotic punch. Jane lost sight of her as she ran beneath the over-head balcony.

"We have to get down there," said Jane, grabbing Lia by the hand. As they entered Jack's former holding area, she caught sight of the other two mechs, laying in pieces on the ground. Behind them, a hole big enough for a shuttle still rained chunks of debris and dangled locking components from wires. "I think this one's a keeper..."

Lia followed her captain through the gaping fissure, so close she practically hugged the other woman from behind.

"_Jane, this is Miranda. We just cleared the ship's reception area and are about to split up. How are you doing?_"

"Just fine," she answered, still running, "Your radio discipline is shite, but I'm not going to complain now. We could use some help here. Looks like our prisoner has escaped and is rampaging about. All the other prisoners are out as well." She palmed the interface to one of the cell block's general population areas. The clamor of gunfire met her ears as soon as the door opened. "There's a real riot going on."

"_Yes, it looks like you're entering cell-block two. I'm sending Kelly's and Gardner's teams to your location using the route you took-"_

The idea of Kelly leading a combat team got Jane's attention, but she said nothing. Beggars couldn't be choosers, especially on a ship infested with thousands of convicts and at least a hundred angry mercs. _Thank god for Gardner_, she thought.

"_-as you've cleared it already. That should make for short travel time_." Miranda took a breath before continuing. Footsteps could be heard in the background through the comm, Gardner and Kelly pressing on at the executive officer's direction."_Jacob, his team, and I will head to cell block one and cut anyone off who wants to run. We'll do a frightening amount of damage. That should divert a lot of the guards and prisoners to us. When we push though, we'll meet you somewhere in the middle. Gabby's team is securing the docking and reception area. I'm synching our transponders to you HUDs now."_

"Works for me," said Jane. She looked at her HUD, stunned with the number of blue icons, thirty-one in all, not counting herself and Lia. The captain had called for help, and by God, she'd gotten it. "Be on the lookout for a tattooed, bald, and mostly naked woman. She's our convict. She's Jack."

"_Wow, okay_," she replied, "_I'll put the word out and keep you updated, Ma'am_."

...

Initially pinned down in cell block two by convicts, guards, and mechs, the tide quickly turned in Jane's favor with the arrival of Kelly, Gardner, and their teams. With only a few minutes of intense and coordinated fire, the teams managed to secure the entire area. Opening the door to the next block, Jane was greeted not by bullets, but by Miranda.

"Miri!" she yelped, lowering her weapon, "What's going on? Is this room clear?"

"Totally," she replied. "The warden is dead. We caught him in the open, trying to climb on top of some shielded platform. We found Jack. Ran into her just as we opened up on the Suns. Things were tense, but she decided to help out when she realized we were on the same side. And she couldn't get out without us."

"What?! Where is she?" asked Jane.

"Right here. Who the fuck are you people?" The tattooed woman walked up from behind Miranda, the other woman stepping aside to allow her captain's appraisal.

Jane stuck out a hip and cocked an eyebrow. "We're Alliance-"

"Bullsh-"

"Don't fucking interrupt me!" Jane screamed, a finger pressing into the convict's bare chest. She was irritated by the young woman's attitude, to be sure, but not as much as she let on. She would fake it, though, because it was the only way to get anywhere with these types of self-stylized tough-guys and girls. "Do you know who I am?"

Jack took a step back and eyed the woman up and down. "I'll be damned," she said with a hint of approval in her voice, "You're Jane Shep-"

"Wrong!" She closed within centimeters of the convict, her hot breath strewn with flecks of saliva, stinging the convict's eyes. She spoke with a harsh voice through gritted teeth. "I'm the biggest, baddest, bitch on this whole fucking ship. You got that?"

"Yeah, chill, psycho-butcher, I got it," said Jack, again backing off, "what do you want from me?"

...

"Knock, knock," said John from the outside of his sister's cabin.

After a few seconds, the door opened to admit the Spectre. He was not prepared for what he saw. There, face-down on her bed and topless, lay his sister. Atop her and straddling her hips, kneeled Jack, also naked from the waist up. With one hand the convict leaned on his sister's back and with the other she held a device, bringing it closer and closer to Jane's pale skin as he watched in horror.

John broke into a sprint without thinking, intent on knocking the bald woman's head from her shoulders before she could touch his sister with whatever she held. As he neared within two paces, Jane looked up, smile on her face. "Hey, bro, what's up?" she asked.

Coming to a startled halt, he liked what he saw even less that before, "Whoa, Jane! Lay back down!" He covered his eyes with a hand. "Too much... Too much skin."

Jane laughed, looking down at her chest, then back up at her brother. She had used her elbows to press her upper body well off the bed when her brother had entered the room, intent on greeting him. She collapsed back down on the bed under the pressure of Jack's urging hand.

"Quit moving, do you want me to screw this up?" The convict noticed John's reaction to his sister's exposed chest and scoffed. "They're just tits. Look, see?" The two flimsy leather straps covering her nipples dropped to her sides and stayed there.

John did indeed see, and they were better than alright. More interesting than Jack's breasts was the device he had taken for a weapon. "What are you getting a tattoo of?" he asked his sister.

"Oh, I don't know," said Jane, "I just told her to give me some ink and make it creative. We'll see how it turns out when she's done."

"Sounds good," he said.

A toothy smile crept across Jack's face. "Hey, boy scout, you know I've had a huge crush on you since the geth attack. Or reapers or whatever."

"What?" asked John. Jane chuckled to herself, causing her back to lightly spasm.

"Stop moving," she said to Jane, and then to John, "Yeah, I used to look up your pics on the extra-net and rub one out to you every night," she admitted. "In fact, seeing you in person is kinda soaking my panties right now. Well, it would be if I were wearing any."

Jane twisted her head to look at the smiling woman seated comfortably on the small of her back. She groaned her disapproval.

"I doubt that," said John, "I'm not your type. Too many teeth, too few arrests."

"Hah!" Jack exclaimed, "You don't know shit. What could be hotter than completely defiling the muscle-bound, goody-two-shoes, hero, golden-boy of the Alliance? I get off on that shit. Check my extra-net history. I even own a genuine-reproduction, pulsing, twenty-five centimeter, John Shepard's-"

"Enough!" yelled John, holding up a hand. "I came in here to talk to Jane."

"Yeah?" his sister asked, trying hard not to laugh and disrupt her tattoo artist's efforts.

"Got a message from mom. She sent it to you too," he said, "She wants to meet you, Garrus, Tali, and I for dinner, maybe spend the day together, and I think we owe her an explanation."

"Works for me," she said, "We'll have plenty of time on Illium. Maybe a week from now?"

"Sure. I'll get something together. What do we tell her about where we've been?" he asked, glancing at Jack, unsure if Jane had let the convict in on that little secret.

"Well, we can't tell her we work for Cerberus," she said.

John's eyes widened at the statement, but Jack gave no sign of reaction. That answered that question, apparently.

"Can you come up with some excuse and let me know?" she asked.

"Yeah, will do. I'm heading to chow, see you down there," he said. Jane stirred, almost like she was going to see him out. "No, no, don't get up," he hastened to say, "I'll show myself out."

When the door closed, Jane burst out in laughter. "Why did you have to give my brother such a hard time?" she asked.

"What?" said Jack, smiling, "Because it's fun, that's why. But yeah, some of what I said was true-"

"Eww"

"-and I'd totally fuck your brother, any time, any place, however he wants it."

"Not gonna happen," Jane said wearily.

"Why? Still a virgin holding out for Miss Right?" Jack blotted the captain's skin with gauze pad and went back for more ink, "Give me five minutes with him and he'll be giving it up like it's prom night."

"No, he won't," said Jane, "And not just cause you're over a decade too late to punch his vee-card. You saw that quarian down in engineering? The purple one? She owns him and he's totally faithful. And she'd kill you for touching him. And I'd kill him for touching you." When she felt Jack's thighs tensing up around her waist, she hastened to add, "Only because it would hurt Tali, the quarian, and I'm not gonna allow that."

...

The elevator doors opened to admit the captain and their newest recruit onto the onto the crew deck. As they rounded the corner to the mess area, Jane heard an American-accented quarian speaking.

"...so I just don't know," Lia said.

"What's that?" asked the captain, sitting next to her boyfriend and across from the girl.

"If I'll be okay. You know..." She began scraping her fingers over the back of one hand, then another, "after... doing what I did. I can't eat. I probably won't be able to sleep. I just keep thinking about that man. His face. His family, if he had one. What I did..."

"I'm not going to lie to you," said Jane. "It sucks. And it will take a while before it stops eating at you. Eventually, you'll accept it. Never okay with it, but you'll accept it." Jane sighed, then sipped at a drink Gardner had brought over to her. "Then it'll happen again and it'll be a little easier. Your coping mechanisms will be better. You might even start to enjoy it, you never know," she said, shrugging.

"Never. I'll never be like that," Lia said with a shudder. "How do you do it, Ma'am?" she asked Tali.

"I never really think about it. It's different for different people, I guess. It's easier when you dequarianize them, and that works for me. Most of the time." Although she's never killed a quarian directly, Freedom's Progress being a debatable matter, she'd killed a few humans and that had been, and continued to be, a difficult proposition. "And Jane's right, it does get easier after the first time. I'll probably have to spend years going to a _gils'tyns_. A shrink," she added for the non-quarians in the room. She rolled her eyes, "A psychiatrist," she added for Garrus, "but for now, I just focus on the mission and don't think about it."

"It's okay if you don't want to go on a ground mission again," said Jane, softly and patiently, "I'm sure the commander won't mind." She glanced to John, but he stirred his food and looked impassive.

"Actually, I want to go again," she explained "Seeing what you guys do... I need to go again. I have to go and make a difference. The only thing worse than being down there in combat is the thought of being up here, while you guys are up to your vocalizers in enemy fire. Is that weird?"

"No." John said sharply, using his command-voice.

The room grew silent and all eyes turned to him, as was customary when the commander made it known he had something important to say. Even Jack stopped chewing her roast beef and swallowed it as quietly as possible.

"Quite a few people want nothing more than to go back across the wire. Back into combat," he explained, "It's what happens to most people, believe it or not. A few never want anything to do with it again, but most... most never want to go home. One day, the war's over and they can't adjust to a normal life," he thought of Elysium, Talis Fia, and the Saren campaign, "so try and make a difference while you can. You may never get another chance."

Garrus nodded, very well acquainted with that feeling. Tali scooted a little closer to John, placing a three-fingered hand on his lap. Miranda and Mordin resumed eating their dinner. Jack looked away and stared into space, as if distracted by something. Jacob mumbled something to Zaeed about 'knowing that feeling,' to which he replied something to the effect of 'why do you think I'm still at it?'

Jane broke the silence, "Sorry to change the subject, Lia, but you can have that ship if you want." She took another sip of her drink.

"What ship?" she asked.

"The _Purgatory."_

"Really? It's... It's an entire Alliance ark-ship! There's no way... They have to want that back," the girl stammered.

"Not Alliance," corrected the captain, "human. It predates the Alliance, and was sold to the Blue Suns besides. It's been seized with Spectre authority in accordance with section four-one-five, subsection seven, of intergalactic shipping law for engaging in illegal trade, specifically slavery." she glanced to John, seeing him smile again made her smile. He had made her memorize that statute and seeing his validation made her feel proud. "So we declared it salvage, and it's available to the first person who can stake a claim. I don't think we'll be letting anyone else know for a few days at least."

"I... I..." Lia wanted to be modest, to say 'no, it's too much' and then hope they insisted. She wanted too, and for any other Pilgrimage gift she might have, but this was too much, too big to risk not getting a second chance at or being anything other than forthright over. This would also mean an end to her Pilgrimage, but she could always petition to stay, citing the requirement to repay the gift. There was no possible way for her to refuse. "I would love it, thank you captain. It might take me a few years of service to you, but I will do my best to repay this gift of resources."

"Good," said John, "We're glad to have you. Just tell them to bring a lot of well-armed marines. There's quite a few extremely dangerous convicts aboard with no way to escape."

Tali commed the girl on a private channel, "You almost looked like you were going to refuse, what was that about?"

"Oh, nothing," replied Lia, "I just felt like I couldn't accept something that valuable in exchange for my service here. Then I decided, I just couldn't say 'no' to something that would help our people so much. It would be so, so wrong."

Tali put a hand on her back, almost laughing at the girl's reluctance, "You did the right thing, believe me."

...

"Mmm, Tals, come to bed. It's almost twenty-three hundred," mumbled John, his face stuffed in a pillow.

"Just a minute, John," she replied, fingers clicking away at his terminal.

"You're just surfing the extra-net. If you don't get off now, I'll be too tired to fool around," he warned.

"Fine, just let me check my messages one last time, please?"

"Okay, hurry..."

Tali closed the window she'd been looking at and opened her Migrant Fleet message client. Curiosity and anxiety filled her when she saw the sender. Quickly deciding to open an read the message rather than putting it off.

_From: Hannah Shepard_

_Subject: An Offer_

_Tali,_

_Let's be frank with each other. You don't like me. I don't like the way you treated me. For someone who claimed to have my son's best interest at heart, you sure have a funny way of showing it. I dare say, you almost attacked me the last time we met two years ago. Honestly, aside from Jane, I am John's only living family, so what am I to conclude about your intentions with my son? For two years, I have heard nothing from you, not a single word, and certainly not an apology. You were only willing to associate with me or even tolerate my presence when he was alive, when he was around for you to leech off of. And now that he's back, it seems you and I will have to deal with each other once again._

_Well, not if I can help it. I can offer you the location of seven decommissioned Alliance warships, all inside neutral space and free for the taking. They are scrap to us, but to the Migrant Fleet they are priceless. As evidence, please find attached the holos, schematics, and ship-breaking orders of two cruisers, three cargo ships, and two frigates. In exchange, I want you to leave John alone and never speak to him again. Go back to the Fleet, collect these ships, and return a hero. Think of the benefit to your people. How can you say 'no' to ships only a few decades old? Can you be so selfish as to sacrifice the well-being of your fellow quarians for your own meager happiness? _

_I do not do this because of your race, dear. I do this because you are wrong for my son, and I believe you act out of your own desires, and not his. If you agree, I know you will keep your word. If you tell Johnny about this, the deal is off. I look forward to seeing you sometime soon in the near future. You can give me your answer then._

_Sincerely,_

_Hannah_

Completely numb, and so shaken she could barely move, Tali closed the terminal and walked to the bed, sitting on its edge.

Sleepy, but eager to wake up if provided the proper motivation, John blindly groped for his quarian fiancé. Finding one of the straps encircling her hips, he tugged her into bed next to him. He pulled her close to him, nuzzling his face against her neck and rubbing her chest.

"Not now, John," she said, pulling away from him and curling into a ball, "I'm not in the mood."

**Please review this chapter.**

**Big news! Soon I will be posting another chapter in my in-universe side-story, _Clean My Wounds_, involving Jane's unique history and Torfan.**

**Was this all good stuff in here? Were there parts you could do without? Let me know. **

**I love to hear from my regulars, but I also love to hear from my secret admirers, that is, someone who reads my stories but has never placed a review.**

**I _especially_ want to hear from my nitpicker. S/he seems to have gone missing. I miss you. You know who you are, even if I don't.**

**P.S. It just occurred to me that this is the first chapter I have _ever_ written with a combat scene featuring both John and Tali.**


	10. Snuff

**Bioware owns the characters and everything else you can find in the Mass Effect Wiki. Calinstel owns 99.5% of the ideas behind the Quarians that I'm using. The rest is mine.**

**I haven't put out the new chapter for my other story yet, but I will, I promise. It should be concurrent with my next chapter.**

**This started out as a full chapter, but the idea ran away on me, starting growing, and turned into a monster. So quickly did this story spread that I had an opportunity to give you an early release of sorts. I hope this story finds you well. Read it slowly; it gets _rough_ in some parts.**

Chapter 10: Snuff

Tali's hand grasped at a pair of flexible handles and lifted, removing the weight of the cumbersome tool-bag from both its carrying strap and her shoulders. Carefully, and using a swinging motion, she set the bag on the deck next to her tool box. She activated her omni-tool, illuminating her large but sparsely appointed cabin, and keyed the unlocking sequence for the box's drawers. Opening the top one, she knelt down next to her dull-blue bag and removed a multi-meter of volus manufacture. _That's odd_, _I didn't use this today. Actually, I haven't used this thing since I was back on the Fleet. _

She put the tool in the drawer and pulled out another. She recognized it immediately, a pair of pliers designed for removing the snap-rings that retained eezo injectors, but only of the type found on late-model turian vessels. The _Normandy_ used that type, of course, having been a conglomerate of both Alliance and Hierarchy tech. But that was the SR1. Cerberus had built the new one to entirely human specifications. _Now, why did I take this with me?_

Completely baffled, she began sifting through the bag, searching for something, anything, that she had actually used that day. She found dozens of ancient quarian tools, a few asari tools, batarian ones, even a set of old deuterium line couplers for the odd hanar vessel. Her movements started becoming more frantic as she searched. Becoming terrified with the absurdity of it all, she heedlessly tossed the instruments about her room as she pulled them from her bag, each a piece of prized equipment accumulated through years of hard work. The tools soaring in all directions, they hit her padded walls with a dull thud before clattering to the ground.

Her face and mask soaked with tears of confusion, she reached the bottom of the bag without having discovered even a hint of what she sought. In a rage of disbelief, she got to her feet, digging through the remaining tools in her box, yanking open each heavy drawer, sifting through their contents, and hurling away what she found. By the time she reached the lower-most drawers, she began ripping them out with screams and grunts, each drawer as wide as she was tall and half as deep. Tearing them clean off the box and tossing them to them across her room, she scattered their contents like seeds on a field.

She dropped to hands and knees, sobbing and sorting through the accumulated tools, piles and piles, half a dozen centimeters deep in places. As she searched, it seemed that more and more engineering paraphernalia accumulated about her. It felt like no sooner than she would pick up one to examine it, three more would take its place on the floor. _Ancestors, what the hell is going on here? Keelah, there has to be something human! What was I working on the _Normandy _with?_

Then it hit her. _The bag! I just got done working on the her number three engine and I had the bag with me. But I just searched it, didn't I?_

She scrambled across her room, kicking aside the discarded apparatus as she went, displaying careless disregard for expensive property and toes alike. Coming to a halt at the base of her box, she picked up lightweight bad and shook it. Empty. Crying and catching a howl of rage behind clenched teeth, she made a last-ditch attempt at regaining her sanity. Turning the bag over and shaking it vehemently, her breathing stopped as something small and shiny hit the ground accompanied by the sound of shattering glass.

Praying that the object was human, that is, had been designed _by_ humans or at the very least intended for use on human equipment, she bent down to examine what last little prize the bag had finally been willing to release.

The object had not survived the fall. In her carelessness and haste, she had shaken the bag too hard and splintered the delicate item into hundreds of small pieces, some of which were still rolling away as she watched. Acting quickly lest she lose more, she gathered up what bits and pieces she could find and held them in the palm of her hand. No longer in danger of further destruction, but still broken forever, she examined the object, hope burgeoning in her with every passing second.

Yes, this was definitely of human manufacture. She sorted through the pieces with a finger; there were various gears, a few screws, a hinge, some shattered pieces of glass, and a dial face among other identifiable parts. Clearly it was a meter of some kind, designed for measuring something. _A dial face... With human numbers... Pressure? Nowhere to hook up a sampling tube. Current or voltage? No wires anywhere. Time?_

"Yes!" she screamed. _John's watch! Why the _fre'eg _didn't I recognize it before? Didn't I melt this thing down? Did I ever get around to doing that? _

Confused, she rubbed her left thumb over its index finger. Lacking the tell-tale lump of her wedding ring and starting to panic, she pressed harder into her finger, wondering if somehow it had sunk into her skin. When that failed, she brought the hand to her sternum, pressing in hard and wincing. The pain was still there... But no ring. Empty. Nothing.

She pressed harder, and harder still, falling to her knees and crying. The acute sting only intensified with more force, but still she kept at it. "Please be there..." she begged between uneven breaths, stricken and moaning with grief, "Please... Ancestors, Please!" She collapsed forward, her mask clanging as her head struck the ground, "Why aren't you there?!"

Screaming until breathless and hoarse, a fire in her throat, she continued to press and rub, feeling her worn and beaten skin breaking open with the aggressive contact. Warm, wet fluid flowed between and around her breasts, turning cold as it soaked the inside of her suit. Finally, when it became too much to bear, she relented with a hideous wail. The pain was still there, at least, and could bring her some small comfort, a reminder that she hadn't entirely lost her mind.

A disgusting mix of tears, saliva, and mucus coating her face and the inside of her mask, all while laying prostrate on the floor, the image reminded her of a time on the fleet before John had returned. She had been so alone aboard the _Neema_, but not here. She began to wonder why none of the crew or the ground team, why neither Jane nor _John,_ had come to check on her. She'd been yelling at the top of her lungs, but no one had bothered. She almost didn't want John here, she realized. She would have to explain to him what all the fuss was about, that she'd lost his ring.

Ten more minutes passed and no one arrived, although it could have been ten seconds or ten hours or ten days for all she knew. She absentmindedly looked about the room, wondering how she could possibly have found herself so alone in the galaxy once again. _Of course they couldn't hear me,_ she thought with relief, _my walls are padded with sound proofing insulation. Still, I was pretty loud..._

Before the thought could completely coalesce in her mind, her omni-tool chimed. Activating it, she felt relieved to hear her aunt's voice.

"Tali, child, I heard all the commotion. Can I come in?" she asked.

"Of course, Auntie, I'll be right there," she replied, taking a moment to collect herself before approaching the doorway. Flinging the thick curtain aside, her fear of abandonment all but disappeared at the sight of her aunt Shala. Relief transitioned to annoyance and no small measure of trepidation as the older woman stepped into her room and revealed the imposing figure of Rael'Zorah.

"Hello, Father," she said in quiet monotone as he joined her aunt in the room, "It is good to see you."

"I wish I could say the same, Tali," he replied, "What's been going on here? What's all this noise about? The insulation isn't perfect, but it's the best we can do for you without drawing unwanted attention to the clan. You don't want that, now do you?"

"No, father, I do not," she mumbled, her head low in shame, her fingers starting to interlace, "I am sorry."

"Stop doing that, girl!" he yelled. Tali's hands flew apart, coming to rest at her sides. "How many times have I told you not to do that?! It makes you look weak... Not becoming of a Zorah."

"Of course, father," she said softly, "It won't happen-"

"Speak up, girl!" he yelled, he hands balling into fists and relaxing, "How do you expect anyone to take you seriously when you mumble?"

"Rael," interjected Shala before Tali could respond, "Don't be so hard on the child! Today is her big day. You should be praising her for what she's done for the fleet."

"Yes, Shala, you're right," he admitted, his posture changing from irate to formal indifference. "Your willingness to provide for the interests of the Fleet has been noted. You've earned praise in the eyes of your people. Now, you never bothered to answer my question did you? You thought I hadn't noticed."

"What was the question, Father?" she asked.

"Do not play dumb, girl." He began pacing about the room, picking up the odd tool, examining it and tossing back on the ground in disgust, "Zorahs are not dumb. You heard me and I will not repeat myself."

Tali _hated_ when he played these games. She honestly couldn't remember what he'd asked, or if he had even asked anything at all. Half the time she thought he just made things up. It came to her as she recalled his entrance.

"I was... Just upset about losing something, is all," she replied in annoyance.

"Some _thing_ or some _one_?" he asked, "If this is about that vile human commander of yours again, we're going to postpone today's festivities and I'll have you remanded to the custody of the _Neema_'s psychiatrists for the next month or until they figure out what's wrong with you, clan name be damned."

"Father, what about John? Where is he?" Her voice trembled, a hand going to her vocalizer, shreds of memory creeping into her mind. "What happened to him?"

"You speak out of turn, girl." He examined his fingers as he spoke, "You killed him, remember?"

"No! No, no no..." She shook her head in disbelief. "He's fine! I just saw him. We were together in his room. Or on a mission. I can't remember which." _Why am I having such a hard time remembering when I last saw him? M__aybe it was in the mess hall this morning? Or was it in an escape pod when I tried to grab for him? _

"No child," said Shala, moving to embrace the young woman, pain in her eyes, "I'm so sorry, but John's been dead for months. And you... did kill him. You put the family dirk through his chest." The older woman held her tight, "I'm sorry to have to keep reminding you like this. It tears me apart inside every time."

"No! Auntie, why would you say that?" She hook her head, too shocked at her aunt's own misinformation to be upset. Surely, she didn't intend this as a sick attempt at a cruel joke, but how could her aunt have been so wrong? She did remember John dying though. "I mean I know John _did_ join the Ancestors over Alchera, but that was two years ago, and he's back now. They brought him back to me!"

"Yes child," her aunt said, rubbing her back, compassion in her eyes, "That is true... And it did happen two years ago. But he died again very recently, by your hand, I'm sorry to say. Please try to remember," the woman's voice cracked, "I know it's painful... but please understand what the doctor said. It's not good to try and repress these kinds of traumatic experiences."

Tali began to remember what happened. In an instant she was taken back to that night.

...

She sat on the edge of the bed she shared with her human, saddling up next to him at his urging. It was there, next to him, that she came to terms with her relationship. It was a lie, a gorgeous, wonderful lie without a doubt, and one she could toil under no longer. There was only one way out, only one way to finally end it. She climbed up on top of him, arms and legs acting in sensuous accord, feeling his radiated warmth underneath her for the last time. She sat on his hips, legs on either side of his torso, her knees tucked under his armpits. Looking down at him, seeing his handsome smile and bright blue eyes, she began to weep behind her mask. She closed his eyes with a finger, one at a time. Slowly, her hand moved to her dagger, unsheathing it. Tears fell harder as she gradually brought the weapon up and over her head. With her free hand, she tenderly stroked her lover's cheek, enjoying the sensation for the last time. He looked as beautiful and perfect as ever, smiling up at her with utter adoration. The poor thing just didn't know, had no understanding or concept of what she was about to.

Tali smiled back, a sorrowful smile, gently whispering her last words to him, "Sleep my love. It all will be over soon. I will make it quick."

She drove the weapon through the center of his chest, a loud dull thump echoing though the room as hilt met cartilage.

...

Her eyes glazing over, she found herself back in her old room, staring at a wall.

"I'm afraid she's too far gone, Shala," said Rael, holding out a hand to indicate his apparently catatonic daughter, "Her mind is gone, or going. She's lost her grip on reality." He sighed loudly for effect, "She'll never be the same again, will she? Do you think we can just move ahead with the award ceremony anyway? I'd hate to disappoint the entire Fleet."

"I don't know. I think it's a possibility, yes," admitted the woman, "but it might be touch-and-go for-"

"I can do it," interrupted Tali, holding Shala by the arms, pleading with her eyes, "I mean I remember. I remember everything that happened, what I did to him. What I had to do." She sighed to herself. It still ached to think about, a lingering pain somehow long forgotten. "And now I have to do this."

"That's the spirit, Tali," said Rael, placing a hand on her shoulder, "You're doing the right thing. Shall we?" he asked rhetorically.

She gave a resigned nod, never taking her eyes off the floor.

Her father's grasp tightened on her shoulder as he led her from the room, Shala falling into step behind them. They marched through the throngs of her fellow quarians, each seeming to have kind words to say to her, though they all sounded indistinct to her ears, dead to the world as she was. A few passerby went to far as to pat her on the back or hold out a hand to greet her, bold attempts at congratulations, signifying an achievement of serious import. She dutifully ignored them all with a cold indifference.

As the three of them walked to their destination, the crowds of her fellow quarians became louder, perversely aiding her in taking her mind off the task at hand. The _Neema_'s lighting slowly graduated from dim and sparse to bright and warm. They continued onward and the vegetation growing freely aboard the ship intersected her path at more frequent intervals, becoming denser and less well-maintained. Everything around her continued to change as she traveled from one side of the ship to the other; even her suit seemed lighter and less confining.

Things had become so altered that it almost seemed as if she had walked aboard a different ship, if she was indeed still on a ship at all. _What's going on here? Nothing's right! _Keelah, _am I a complete lunatic now?_

The vegetation became thicker still, covering the walkway completely. The sounds of the crowd still assaulted her ears, but from off in the distance, growing louder as they neared the ceremony. The foliage beneath her feet resolved into a dirt path as the forest neared a clearing. Beyond the clearing, the path became demonstrably wider and had been paved in smooth stone. At least the entire compliment of the ship, maybe more, lined the road, all uproarious in their cheers.

She tried to mute the noise and shut them out as she walked between the multitude, but she found her omni-tool missing. Worse, so was the glove on her hand. Without a thought for the suit-breach or the ailments that would soon follow, instead wanting, _needing_, to shut out the incessant chorus of her people, she slapped her hands to her helmet, in an effort to manually undermine her audio pick-ups. Surprise and panic gripped her when bare hands met pointy, bejeweled ears. _That's it, I'm as crazy as a _bosh'tet_ aren't I?_

Looking to Shala for an explanation, she was struck to see her face for the first time in her adult life, the woman looking exactly as she had so many years ago. She smiled at her, one which Tali returned. Strangely, she was left with the sense that everything would be just fine.

She glanced to her father, wondering what he would look like without his mask, but only a faceless blur greeted her. The crowds, were the same as he; each one's face an amalgam of indistinct features that wouldn't materialize no matter how hard she squinted.

"Auntie, what's going on? Where's my suit? My mask? The ship?" she asked, confused, but far less concerned than she felt she ought to feel.

Shala closed her eyes, slowly shaking her downcast head, strands of jet black hair falling over her face. When she opened them again, she looked to Rael, a tear falling down a pale-blue cheek. "She's really gone, isn't she? Half her spirit is already with the Gods, and her mind has broken as a result." She would have said more, but became too choked up to try.

"Yes, Shala, it seems that way, doesn't it?" he confirmed, "Doing what she did... This is the result. Girl, I know your mind has not gone _that_ far. Your canoe is at the family long-house. You haven't stepped aboard it in weeks. If by 'suit' you mean your _selmaas_, then you're wearing it, girl. As for the mask, I have no idea what you mean. If you're feeling exposed, you may pull your scarf over your face and head, but it's hardly advisable at a time like this. The people want to see you. Be proud."

Shala looked indisputably distraught with Tali's condition. "Rael, are you absolutely _sure_ she should be doing this? She's hardly in her right mind." She asked, a few more tears joining the first. She turned to Tali, stopping the girl's march to the temple with a firm tug at her shoulder. "Tali, is this what you really want?"

"Of course it's what she wants!" shouted Rael, pulling the girl from her aunt and dragging her on, "I sacrificed for the good of the clan and so did she. Now she has nothing left to do but to give more. What else can she do? Stay in her hut, a gibbering wreck? Her condition is her own doing and I will not feel any sympathy for what she brought upon herself" He continued onward to the temple steps, sometimes dragging, sometimes guiding her, the crowd filling in around her.

"I... I need to do this Auntie," said Tali. Yes, she remembered now. "It's okay. I will not be a _hrarxa_ any longer." At those words, Shala let out a quick sob. Followed by her aunt and father, she ascended the steps slowly, with each one the altar at the top drew nearer.

Only a few moon-cycles ago, Clan Zorah had sent out envoys to far away lands, demanding tribute in the form of trading goods and dozens of quarian sacrifices from every other clan they met, all under threat of death, destruction, and pillaging. Tali had been there. She remembered it all now.

...

It was a warm summer morning when she left her city-state. Sent by her father, a powerful chieftain and warlord, she hoped to return with riches and glory for her people. She had heard rumors of a newly discovered clan, one found at the farthest reaches of the horizon, and traveled for months until she could make contact with one of their representatives.

Upon hearing her demands and not wishing to risk an all out war, even one that they might win, the foreign clan made an offer of comprise. They would offer no goods, no women, and no children. Instead, a single champion named John'Shepard would willingly sacrifice himself to the gods in the name of her people and for the benefit of both clans.

She had scoffed at the suggestion, incapable of believing that a single man could equal the value of all the other potential sacrifices combined in the eyes of the Gods. He had proved her wrong, however. During the negotiations and deliberations, word traveled that one of clan Shepard's family-groups had been attacked where they lived on the outskirts of the _ogwer_. The description of the aggressors matched that of her clan Zorah's oldest foe, a splinter group that had left her city-state in centuries past. In response to the horde opposed to them, the Shepard clan sent only a single man to deal with the threat, their champion. Such was the confidence they had in him that it overruled any fear she felt for the hated splinter-clan, enticing her to join him as an observer.

For many more months she traveled with him as he hunted down and killed every last splinter-clan that stood against him. They died in droves all around, each and every one failing to land even the most superficial blow to his person. Entire legions of the enemy cooperated as one, only to fall like _haresh_ grass under the reaper's scythe. Tali had been truly amazed by him, but more than that, she discovered he was without a doubt the kindest and most handsome man she'd ever met.

Though it pained her, she consented to his clan's offer of sacrifice in the name of peace, knowing for certain now that he could have single-handedly wiped clan Zorah from under the light of _Kaeli'stei__z_. So giving was the man however, that he would rather end his own existence than have anyone else die in the ensuing conflict. If just two lives could be spared at the cost of his one, he had reasoned, it would be worth it. On the long journey back to her clan, her burgeoning love for the champion became deep with an intensity she never thought was possible, surpassing all stages of bonding faster than any quarian before her.

When the time came to offer himself up to the gods, however, the champion faltered, breaking his blade on the stone altar rather than plunging it into himself. He would not, could not, do it, but the opportunity for second chances had long since passed. The duty of carrying out the sacrifice then fell to Tali, the envoy who had accepted the offer of his clan on behalf of hers.

Beside herself with grief, yet with a strange calmness about her, she drew her dirk and stabbed.

...

Her Father's words interrupted her bitter recollection.

"That's a good girl. I'm glad you can leave this world with a clear head," he said.

Although she could not tell from the blurriness of his features, she was left with the impression that he was smiling. An odd notion because she couldn't remember her father ever smiling at her before. She lifted herself onto the altar, laying down atop the stone slab crowning it. "Why are you smiling, Father?" she had to ask.

"I gave my wife to the Gods to ensure a bountiful harvest ten summers ago. Now I will watch as my daughter gives of herself. There is no higher honor than sacrificing one's all for the good of the people, and I couldn't be happier," he replied.

"How could you kill mother like that? You were bonded to her. She was your _seara_." Tali wondered aloud, drawing her dagger from her hip. As soon as it left the scabbard, the metallic stink of fresh blood pummeled her nose. Not just any blood, but blood that smelled very familiar and somehow foreign at the same time. With her free hand she parted the purple Zorah-patterned silk of her _selmaas_, just enough to keep her breasts covered but expose her sternum.

"Well I wasn't really bonded to her," he said simply.

"What?" she asked, holding the dagger high above her, razor-sharp tip pointed at her chest. Drops of unnaturally bright blood fell from the dagger, splattering her bare cleavage and running down her chest and stomach, feeling slick and cold against her skin. Somehow, the contact provoked an odd, intense pain, as if it had been there the entire time but only now could she register it. "I still don't understand this, Father... What you say might be true, but it doesn't explain how I was able to kill John'Shepard. How could I possibly sacrifice the man I was bonded to?!"

"I don't know. _How could you_?" he asked.

The raucous cheers of the crowd, content to be marginalized until now, intensified with a renewed vigor. Gradually a chant coalesced out of the din. They chanted her name over and over.

'_Tali. Tali. Tali._'

About to bring the weapon down, she hesitated. The voices of the crowed seemed to get louder.

"_Tali! Tali! Tali!_"

She needed to find another way. This wasn't right. Something was very, _very_ wrong with all this. Her father was right. _How could I have done it?_ Setting the dagger down, she moved to get up off the slab, but found she couldn't. Her body lay paralyzed. She couldn't control her arms, legs or head. She could only look straight up and stare impotently, feeling the blood trickle from the center of her chest, starting warm and gradually cooling. The clamor of the crowd increased tenfold, coalescing into a single, all-powerful voice.

"_**Tali! Tali! Tali!**_"

An arm began working again, though not of her own accord. Without sensitivity, it slowly moved away from her to the knife laying at her side, its hand intent on grabbing the weapon. She couldn't let that happen. She couldn't let it move from her. Not yet, not while she could still possibly have an even greater calling worth living for. She needed to- No, she absolutely _had to_ will her other arm out of paralysis and snatch that part of herself back before it was too far gone from her side.

As her right hand neared the dagger, she managed to lift her left hand. As her numb fingers grazed the pommel she snaked her obedient arm across her body. Just as her hand gripped the weapon, she seized onto the forearm of her possessed appendage, knocking the dagger free and pulling it in close to her sticky red chest. Remaining content to stay for a few minutes, the arm began pulling away again. She clutched it even tighter than before, pressing it into her. It pulled even harder, so she responded in kind, but in the opposite direction, her fingers and nails digging deep into flesh that she could not feel. It started furiously tugging for release, yanking away from her, but she would not yield, could not relent in her desperate need for it. Eventually, the efforts of her wayward appendage became half-hearted and slowed to a stop, giving Tali a much needed reprieve in her struggle, even as the gestalt of voices became clearer and more incessant.

"_**Tali!**_ Come on, wake up. Let. Go."

An eye opened, scanning her surroundings. The cabin. John's cabin. John. _Thank the Ancestors, he's not dead and I'm still here._

As she lay in bed, the lasts wisps of dream-educed reality evaporated under the warmth of the ship's artificial dawn. She lay on her right side, curled up tight behind John, encapsulating his form with hers, blinking a few times to let her mask clear the sleep from her eyes. The vivid dream had already taken its leave of her psyche by the time she sat up, only consigning within her only a deep yearning for her human and an impending sense of loss. Coupled with those emotions was the very real pain that radiated through her chest and the sensation that her left hand was stuck. She looked down to examine it.

"Yeah, Tals. Can you let go now? It's gone numb," John said with a smirk.

She released his forearm with a start, dropping it to the bed. "John, I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!" She leaned over his supine form to examine the bare arm, a red, three-fingered imprint embedded deep in his tissue. The skin had broke open where her fingertips had been, but just barely. "I... I don't know what came over me."

"It must have been a heck of a nightmare," he said.

"Yeah, I don't remember what it was about, though," she tried to recall the dream, but found nothing but vague images that fell from her mind like water down a drain. "Something really bad happened. I did something bad. Keelah, John, your arm is _really_ red. Are you going to be okay? Should I get the doctor?"

"I'll be fine," he said, holding one of her hands in his and offering a reassuring smile, "Red is good. It means the blood's flowing again."

"I figured, but..."

"No 'buts' young lady," he said, reaching out to tickle her. While she laughed, he continued, "You don't get to worry about me, it's _my_ turn to worry about _you_. First off, you didn't want anything to do with me last night, and second, you're having nightmares so bad that even I'm feeling it."

"Me too," she mumbled. Something must have been pressing or rubbing against her makeshift _Pal'tec vis surden_ while she slept. It had been anything but gentle, as her suit's moisture collectors could attest to, struggling to mop up what she had apparently bled out. She used her suit's internal medi-gel dispensers to address the throbbing pain quickly and discretely, not wanting to worry John with something so trivial. "I was feeling grumpy after an old acquaintance sent me a disturbing message. I had some trouble sleeping, so I took some sleeping medication. I guess it knocked me out harder than I thought."

"I'll say. You were dead to the galaxy," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist and chest, pulling her beck down next to him. She gladly complied at first, but began to struggle when merely having her back and rear-end pressed into him had left her wanting and unsatisfied.

"I... I was," she tried to speak as she rolled over to face him. Once settled, she continued at a fervent pace, "I won't let it happen again, John. I'm so sorry. It was stupid and selfish of me. If there had been an emergency I don't know what I would have done. What if we were attacked? Or we got an urgent mission or something? _Keelah_, if they needed me in engineering-"

"Tali..." His fingertips hid the light of her vocalizer.

"Sorry again," she replied, "Rambling..." She sighed. "Again..."

John shook his head in disbelief. Did this girl ever think she could do anything right around him? "So what was the letter about?" he asked.

"Nothing John. It's not important. Just someone trying to get under my skin," she said. As much as Hannah Shepard had upset her, she wasn't about to tell anyone of her offer. She cared about John so much that she was more than willing to keep that little secret to herself if it spared him the grief of having an even more dysfunctional family, not that she was one to talk.

As she looked at him, she was struck with the odd sensation that she had already lived this experience before. Slowly, she climbed atop him, sitting on his hips, legs on each side of his torso, her knees in his arm pits. She gazed down on his beautiful face, his gorgeous blue eyes, and his loving smile. He was perfect in every way. She was struck with a sudden urge to do something truly unfathomable.

She slid her hands along his chest, up to his shoulders, and began spreading his arms apart and bringing them up and over his head, holding them firmly down against his pillow.

John was more than content to play along. "Ohh, kinky," he said with a smile.

"John I want you to close your eyes and do not open them. Swear to me that you won't open them, no matter what happens, no matter what I do," she said, tightly holding onto a small digit from each of his hands with one of hers, freeing her other one for use.

He bit a lip and closed his eyes, but not without complaint. "Aww, Tali, what if I want to peek?"

"Swear to me, John!" her voice turned harsh, "This is important. I have to do this and I don't want you looking at me when it happens."

"Alright, alright, I was just kidding with you anyway," he said, biting a lip and waiting for whatever surprise she had in store for him.

_He's so loving_, she thought,_ so trusting. His word is his bond. There's no possible way he'll open his eyes when it happens. He has no concept of what I'm about to do, no idea of how difficult this really is for me. He probably won't even realize what's happened until after it's all over. _

She moved her free hand high up to her head. A soft hiss filled the room. John took a sharp intake of breath, but kept his eyes shut, closing them even tighter than before. Warm, supple lips met his. Lips smoother than the finest silk in the galaxy fell upon rough, dry ones, unworthy to even _conceive_ of being granted such a sensation.

Without thinking, John parted their kiss with his tongue, needing to hide his shame by moistening his parched lips. That was all it took, changing what was intended as a light peck into something much more. With a sharp moan his quarian lover seized it in her mouth and gave hers to him in return. Between hot, shuddering breaths and gasps, her mouth opened wide to attacked his in the most loving, if undignified, way possible. Saliva coated John's face under the attention of his inexperienced paramour. Teeth knocked together awkwardly every now and again, not for an instant diminishing the couple's shared lust. The human joined his quarian in moaning every time his lips or tongue came too close to her gnawing canines, only serving to heighten their communal experience.

Tali's legs began to quiver, her core tightening. At the height of her climax, her thighs compressed John's waist in an uncompromising vise of quarian flesh, forcing all the air out of his lungs in an instant. Her screams of ecstasy were no less deafening outside her mask, although the unimpeded cry sounded so much more exquisite to the man's pained ears. Under the assault of the new sensations, and through proper timing, John was able to achieve the desired result as well.

Giving herself a few quick seconds to examine her lover with her own eyes, she used the last ounce of strength in her shaken and spent body to reattach her visor. "You can open your eyes now," she mumbled.

...

During her lunch break, Tali worked at composing her reply to Hannah. While it was true that the dreadnaught captain had requested her response in person, Tali felt the opportunity presented by an e-mail exchange would allow for further elaboration on several key points of discussion. Examining the document a few more times for spelling, punctuation, formatting, and to ensure there would be no chance of a miscommunication, she hit the 'send' button and logged off.

...

_From: Tali'Zorah vas Neema_

_Subject: Re: An Offer_

_Dear Hannah,_

_Fuck You._

_Sincerely,_

_Tali'Shepard_

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**Right, so expect a full-sized chapter to come in about one to two weeks from now, along with Jane's story.**


	11. Nothing Else Matters

**Bioware owns the characters and everything else you can find in the Mass Effect Wiki. Calinstel owns 96.0% of the ideas behind the Quarians that I'm using. The rest is mine.**

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**ALSO! A new chapter is up for my in-universe fic, now titled Warrior Ethos: Tabula Rasa. You should check it out because there's stuff in there that applied to the main series. Plus, it's like getting a 20,000 word update all at once.**

Chapter 11: Nothing Else Matters

With the exception of a few key members, the Normandy first-shift crew gathered in the shuttle bay, it's open expanse doubling as a gym of sorts. Weight training equipment, treadmills, and various other fitness equipment dotted the walls, each sandwiched between workbenches, fuel dispensers, and racks of spare parts, among other things. The crew stood in a loose formation at the center, chatting about sporting events, ship's gossip, the mission, and everything in between. Miranda positioned herself at the front and checked the time on her omni-tool, patiently waiting for the last two crew members to arrive.

"Hey, what did I miss?" asked John as he stepped out of the elevator wearing his Alliance physical fitness uniform, strolling towards his place at the back.

The Spectre took a mental roll-call of his ground-team as he approached, eyes glancing over each and every person in attendance. Garrus and his people were absent; he expected that. Miranda was there, which meant that Jane manned the combat inform center. Mordin had yet to miss morning physical fitness training since their talk, and Jacob _never _missed one. Today was no different. Kasumi and Jack stood talking together at the for end of the formation and Zaeed, looking as if he'd just been woken from the dead, occupied a position at the back. Lia stood next to the grizzled mercenary, saving a spot for the commander.

"Attention on deck!" called Miranda, snapping into the rigid stance, the other crew following suit. The Cerberus operative leaned forward a bit, trying to get a better view of anyone that might be lingering in the open elevator. Confused that the commander had arrived alone, she crisply saluted him on behalf of the formation, the other man returning the gesture. "Good morning, Sir," he said, "Just waiting on Tali. All others accounted for. Garrus and his gun crew have been excused for a surprise close-air-support drill."

"She won't be coming," said John, "She's going to sick-call." A room full of wide eyes turned to the commander as he spoke, the widest of all belonging to the ship's other quarian inhabitant. "Her engineering section with be doing PT with me and the rest of the unassigned ground-team today."

A barely audible sigh of relief came from Kenneth and Gabriella, followed by a few chuckles. Lia allowed herself a few bounces on her toes.

"Eyes front!" yelled Miranda, upset with the attention the commander was receiving. The chief engineer may be sick, and the CO's face appeared to cut and swollen, but it didn't necessarily imply anything. It was none of their business anyway.

After accountability and a few announcements, the first-shift crew and the ground-team members split up into their sections. Each section had a designated work-out plan, some more rigorous than others. Notorious for his independent mind-set when it came to exercise, John called over the engineering crew and his charges, those ground-team members that had no sections aboard ship.

"We've got an hour and a half," he said, "I want you sweating the entire time. I don't care what you do to get there. Get to it." Ken and Gabby both whooped with excitement for the reprieve they'd been granted from their lieutenant's border-line insane exercise routine, while the others seemed far more indifferent. He started to head over to a piece of exercise equipment before turning back to the group. "Lia, Jack, I've got something for you."

From a pocket, he pulled out two sets of non-commissioned officer rank, holding them out for the pair. Lia took hers instantly with a smile, setting about pinning it to her _Realk_, bouncing on her toes the whole while. "Thank you, Sir!" she said cheerfully.

Jack eyed her set wearily before retrieving it from his palm, murmuring, "Thanks, Boy Scout." Jane had provided the biotic woman with a set of old mismatched work-out cloths, which she presently wore, stuffing the insignia into one of her pockets.

John nodded to the pair, effectively dismissing them, and started off for an unoccupied bench press machine. As he saddled up to it and began working out, he noticed the ship's armorer approaching.

"Hey, Sir, need a spot?" asked Jacob, noticing the incredible amount of weight his commander currently struggled to bench press.

"No," he gasped, "I'm... Good..."

"That's a relief," replied the operative, "I don't think I could have helped anyway." He stood there watching as John lifted, over and over again, wondering how many more repetitions the man could do before his cybernetics would give out. His team certainly hadn't shorted the twins in the strength department.

As he stood, worriedly observing him push through his set, Lia ambled her way over to stand next to him. Deducing that the young woman wished to speak with his superior about her missing lieutenant, the armorer took his leave of the pair.

John placed the bar back on its rack and sat up. "What's up?" he asked her, motioning for a near-by towel.

Eager to help, the girl snatched it up and held it before him. She watched interest as wiped the accumulated sweat from his head, biceps, and forearms. Seeing him set the towel aside as he finished, she rushed to reclaim it, intent on taking it to the hamper for him. "Well, I wanted to make sure the lieutenant was alright," she said, "Illnesses can be tough on us."

"She's fine," he replied, averting eye-contact, "she not sick anyway. Just allergic," he finished before he could stop himself.

"Oh, right, of course," said Lia, "we don't really get sick. Bacteria and stuff always cause an allergic reaction... Unless it's our bacteria, and it's three centuries ago. Then nothing would really happen."

John nodded in confirmation, relieved she hadn't pieced anything together from his comment. If Tali wanted her fellow engineer to know what had transpired last night, then she could be the one to tell her. "What do you mean 'your' bacteria?" he asked.

"Well, not just bacteria, but anything from Rannoch that's small enough be absorbed through our _fasakt_ or skin," she replied, "but these days I imagine it would probably cause a pretty bad reaction."

John stood up to make way for Zaeed, who awaited his turn at the bench-press. The commander motioned for Lia to follow him to the next machine and she gladly obliged, tossing the soiled towel in its hamper and exchanging it for a new one. He wanted to ask what those things she mentioned were, but he felt that any discussion of quarian physiology should be left to his fiancé. "So what happens if you get something into your system that isn't native to Rannoch?" he asked instead.

"Well, if it's dextro, then it can kill us," she said casually, "Especially bacteria. Viruses need compatible DNA to replicate. But bacteria can just eat you away from the inside out. If it's levo..."

John looked at her expectantly, their eyes making contact. Perhaps he looked a little too expectantly.

Lia smiled, her grin broad enough to dim her eyes.

Caught. He'd been caught and he knew it. He turned away, stepping up to a pull-up bar. _Clever girl..._

"Well," she continued, drawing out certain words, "if it's _levo_, then nothing might happen. Some of the proteins and their amino acids wouldn't cause a reaction any more than microscopic dust would. Those ones are totally incompatible, good or bad. Some might cause a bad reaction because the part of the amino acid that our systems respond to has nothing to do with its chirality. Then if our bodies try to incorporate that backwards amino acid into our own proteins, all hell breaks loose."

As she spoke, John couldn't help but day-dream, lost in her streaming biological monologue. This girl was to biology what Tali was to engineering. Instead of paying attention, he began to wonder what Liara had been up to for the past two years, and if perhaps he'd be able to find her when they touched down on Illium. What would she think of the two of them returning from the dead? Would he need to convince her like he had to do with Tali?

Noticing her commander's eyes glaze over, she quickly summed-up her thesis for him. "Hard to say what might happen. Either way, I imagine that we would adapt to, ah, uh..." Entrenched in scientific thought, Lia paused when the words she was about to say caught up with her. Scratching at the backs of her hands, she finished quietly "Um, we will, that is, we _would_, adapt to repeated exposure."

John lost count of his repetitions. Closing his eyes and sighing, he began again. "So it's not that big a deal for you all to go unsuited around here?" he asked.

"Oh, it is!" she insisted, "On a ship like this, our biggest problem is that it's been contaminated by a fellow dextro crewmember." She looked around, as if trying to spot Garrus. "More importantly, air from the Citadel or other places with turians circulates through here when we're in port. That alone could kill us. Plus, even if both the lieutenant and I were in a perfectly clean environment, we'd still contaminate each other if we unsuited in front of each other."

"You seem to know a lot about this sort of thing," he said, holding out his hand expectantly.

She draped the towel over his palm. "Well, my degrees are in biology, xenobiology, and organic chemistry," she said as he began toweling himself off again.

Finished with wiping himself down, he gave it back to her. "That's pretty damn impressive," he said, "why aren't you working for Mordin or the doc instead of Tali? Oh, do you want to do a set?" he asked.

"Can we do the leg press instead?" she asked. John nodded and together they walked to that machine. Setting the weight to eighty-percent of maximum and beginning her work-out, the girl continued, "I'm not that impressive. There was a lot of overlap between those majors. We all have an intense education because there's a lot of knowledge to go around and not many of us to learn it. If you think I'm in any way remarkable, then you should ask the lieutenant about her degrees."

Thinking about it, it occurred to John that he'd never actually asked Tali what kind of formal education she had. He'd always just been told that she was an engineer and he left it at that.

"I asked Mordin if he needed any help," she said, "but he told me no. He's doing doctorate-level work anyway. Way above my head. The med-bay is well staffed. Engineering is short on raw manpower, so I think I'm of the most use there."

"Right, well, what happens if a levo race gets into contact with some dextro... stuff?" he asked.

"What kind of 'stuff?'" she asked, "and what levo race are we talking about?"

John frowned at her, his glare letting her know exactly how far he was willing to let her pursue this line of questioning. He struggled with every fiber of his being to not lick his painfully torn lips.

"Well..." she said softly, "if a, uh, human," noticing his eyes narrow, she held up a hand in mollification, "-for example only- were to be exposed to some proteins commonly found in a quarian, also for example, then probably there wouldn't be much reaction because your body wouldn't recognize them as something it needed to react _to_. We all have some small amount of amino acids of the opposite chirality floating around inside us. It just happens. There might be some light swelling of the affected area."

John looked away and licked his lips, feeling them itch as she spoke. Lia was kind enough to pretend not to notice.

"But that probably has more to do with the injury." Lia bit her lip so hard when she realized what she's said, almost doing to herself what Lieutenant Zorah had almost certainly done to him. "I mean... I... Sorry, Sir. It's, well it's pretty obvious."

"Keep it to yourself, Sergeant," he said, invoking her new rank as a way of showing his sincerity, "Tali's private about this sort of thing, so I need to play it safe and keep this_ very quiet_ for the time being, understand?"

"Of course, Sir," she replied at a whisper.

...

"Jesus Christ, Nee! You look like you were mauled by a badger!" She grabber her brother's face with a hand under his chin, forcing his attention away from the ship's lunch menu and the plate of sandwiches he'd been scrutinizing. Turning his head left and right, she examined him. "What the hell happened?"

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep a grimace from invading the corners of his lips. "Training exercise got a little too rough," he replied without missing a beat.

"Who were you training with?" she asked. Her fingers suddenly snapped with realization. "Garrus! That turian bastard's got claws-"

He shook his head as he turned away to accept Gardner's offering, a pair of mugs, coffee for himself and decaffeinated tea for her. "Jane, it wasn't-"

As he turned back to hand it to her, he noticed her furiously scrolling through the contacts on her omni-tool, stopping on the one labeled 'Gare-Bear.' With a snort of laughter he spilled some of the hot beverages down his hands. "Ow. Here take this," he said, offering her one of the drinks.

She hit the call button and snatched the cup out of his hand, spilling even more of it on his bare skin. "I'll make him wish he were dead for not wearing gloves."

The turian answered the call. "_Hey, babe, how-_"

"Garrus! Did-you-hurt-my-brother?!" she asked in a flurry.

"_No..._" he said slowly, trying to think as he spoke, adding, "_I mean not today. Maybe I hit him one time too hard when were sparring the other day-_"

"Okay, so you didn't tear his lips open in a couple places and scratch his cheek? What about last night?" She gave a sideways glace to her brother. He caught her eye and started walking to one of the mess-tables, sipping his coffee, suddenly engrossed in his data-pad.

"_Spirits no, Jane. You _know_ where I was last night, and I've never drawn blood with my talons._" He paused, considering his words, "_On your brother._"

"Right, well, are you coming up for lunch?" she asked, deciding to change the subject. She snorted with laughter as she witnessed her brother struggling to keep the hot coffee off his pained lips. "Please come Skully. Watching John drink his coffee is priceless."

"_Well, I was going to run through some more drills with the gun crew..._"

"Please...?" she asked, using the pleading tone she defaulted to when intimidation wasn't possible, a tone she almost exclusively reserved for Garrus and her brother.

"_Alright, I'll head over._"

...

"Morning Tals, how're you feeling?" asked John into his omni-tool, pulling a straw from its wrapper as he spoke. The coffee felt way too hot against his mending wounds.

"_Better. The anti-inflammatory drugs and immuno-boosters did their job, but I still feel a little sick. Karin ran some tests this morning and she says I'll be fine and I should be able to head back to work after lunch. How are you?"_

"Not bad," he replied, "My lips and tongue are a little sore, but in a good way." He smiled at the memory and stuck the straw in his coffee.

"_John, I'm so sorry about that, please forgive me. It was so stupid and I should never have done it, but I just _had to_ kiss you... I don't know... And then I got carried away in the moment._" She paused to chuckle, overheard into the comm. "_I don't even think I'm completely to blame, I mean you're so damn-_"

"Tali," he cut her off in a firm tone, "Jane is walking over now. Join us for lunch?" he asked.

"_Absolutely!_" she squealed over the comm, "_I'm just wrapping up a very important message. I'll be down in a minute. I love you!_"

"Love you too, Tali," he replied before closing the connection.

...

"Priceless?" asked the turian, taking his seat across from Jane and next to John, "Doesn't that mean kind of interesting in human-speak? He looks pretty boring to me."

Jane glanced at her brother as he slurped coffee through a straw then turned her attention back to her eggs. "Yeah, looks like he's figured it out. Sorry."

"So what happened?" he asked, looking back and forth between Jane and John.

"Don't worry about it, buddy," said John, "I'll tell you both later... It's hardly a big deal." The truth was that he'd be more than happy to tell them now, except that he hadn't asked Tali if she wanted it public knowledge that she'd been mask-less. He couldn't think of a reason why she'd mind, but that wasn't the point. His opinion of the situation only amounted to half of those that counted.

As he Stared down at his Reuben sandwich, trying to figure out how to eat it without further aggravating his injuries, John barely saw Tali's shapely quarian form taking a seat next to him. He smiled to himself, slipping his hand onto her thigh, running it up and down its length. Idly, he checked his data-pad and sipped his coffee, all the while pretending not to notice the woman. She played along, not saying a word, only spreading her thighs to admit his hand and giving grateful shudders of appreciation whenever it rubbed up against her most personal of areas.

"Hi, everybody," said Tali, taking her seat across from John.

While Jane and Garrus made their greetings, John gasped in shock, instinctively retracting his adulterous hand at high-speed, slamming it hard on the underside of the table. His inhalation, so forceful that a few chewed morsels of his lunch traveled down his wind-pipe, sent him into a thunderous coughing frenzy. With the exception of Lia, all the diners stared at the man, Garrus going so far as to pat him on the back a few times. As he regained his composure, the Spectre reached for a napkin, giving the decidedly non-Zorah quarian to his right a pointed, sideways glare.

Her eyes betrayed a broad smile as she gave the human a light-hearted shrug.

"John, are you okay?" asked Tali, her hand reaching across the table to his.

He gratefully accepted it, hoping the touch would purge his memory of where it had just been. "Fine, Tali, fine. You?"

"Not bad. My nose is a bit stuffed up, and I've got a sore throat, but I'm feeling much better, actually," she replied, inserting a nutrient paste tube into its slot beneath her facemask.

Jane and Garrus exchanged glances, immediately after which they both smiled. Soft sub-harmonics filled the table; the turian equivalent of muffled laughter.

John lowered his face onto a hand, rubbing his brow with a finger. He had expected the young woman to answer with the standard fare, banal pleasantries and the like. An accurate appraisal was not prescribed. _Does she not care if anyone else knows? _

"What about your lips?" asked Tali, "Did you go see doctor Chakwas? You might be experiencing a reaction to my proteins."

_Apparently not..._

At this, Jane whistled aloud while Garrus gave John a pat on the back, whispering into his ear "She's hot, isn't she?"

John kicked the turian's calf, not dignifying the question with even a look, let alone a response.

"That must have been some training last night, Johnny," said Jane, smiling. She shifted her attention to the turian as he nursed his throbbing leg, "He tried to blame those marks on you, Garrus."

The male Shepard grunted from biting his previously wounded tongue and dropped his sandwich, its constituent parts separating on his plate. "Ith nether thaid thath!"

"I'm not surprised you believed it either," replied Garrus, "no one can resist this face." He made a show of spreading his mandibles wide and waving a hand under his chin, as if displaying tempting merchandise before an audience.

Jane leaned in to kiss him on the lips, "No comment."

"What's the big deal, guys?" asked Tali, looking between the pair of humans, the turian, and one other quarian.

They all still sat there, smiling like idiots.

Looking extremely worried, she faced her _inszel_. "Why didn't you tell them, John? Are you ashamed?" she asked, before addressing the group, "I didn't mean to hurt him. It's just that I've never kissed anyone before..."

"Oh, no, honey," said Jane, reaching over to embrace the girl, "You did fine-"

"I just need practice..." the quarian mumbled softly as Jane spoke.

"You did great," she said, looking to her brother and tilting her head, using it to convey her desire for him to say something encouraging, "Right Johnny?"

"You were great Tali," said John, "you know that. It's just that I wasn't sure you wanted me spreading our private business about the ship, so I was being evasive. Now that they found out the truth, they're giving me a hard time, that's all."

"Spreading our...?" Tali shook her head and smiled, at a loss to describe her human's lunacy. If she couldn't read his honest expression so well, she would have thought he was making up the most transparent lie possible. "John, sweetie, you visit me every day. Where I work." She pointed to the elevator shaft. "Next to a bunch of gossiping engineers." She pointed to Ken and Gabby sitting at the table next to them. The pair waved at them and John waved back, "And I spend the first ten minutes of it groping you." She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes on him, "Every. Single. Day."

"Right..." John said, trailing off.

"Not to mention what we did in front of poor yeoman Chambers," said Tali, rolling her eyes.

"No hard feelings!" called Kelly from somewhere near the buffet line.

Tali smiled brightly in the direction of the yeoman, thrusting a hand in the air and waving at her. John sunk his head into his hands again, rubbing his face with both palms.

"I get it," said John, "I get it. We have no secrets on this ship."

"Oh, that reminds me. I have some news," said Tali. She put a hand on Jane's shoulder and turned to the woman, "This is for you too. It will probably effect both you guys. I was typing out a message to your mother, saying hello, you know, getting reconnected... when I let it slip that we were engaged."

"Nice," said Jane, glancing quickly to Garrus then back to her meal before he noticed.

"Huh," said John. He very well couldn't get upset at Tali for something like that. Although he never let her know, he had been a little upset when he found out that she had been too scared to tell her family about their engagement. "How did you let it slip?" he asked, trying to hide his curiosity behind an innocent sounding question.

"Well, I signed my name as Tali'Shepard. I did it out of habit." She shrugged, she sounding almost smug when she spoke.

"Did you?" asked John, "And how long have you had this habit?"

"Well..." She tilted her head and brought a finger up to where her mask covered her chin, thinking for a moment. "I guess it all started when I wrote a letter to your mother this one time half an hour ago..."

"Uh huh," said John, nodding to himself, "So are you going to sign your next letter to Shala or Rael that way? Or tell them at all?"

"_Yes_." she replied, feeling perturbed at having her feet held to the fire, "I was just going to get on that. After lunch. Promise."

"If you're going to change your name," said Jane, "we'll have to update your service records-"

"Not yet!" she interrupted, before continuing in a softer tone, "there has to be a bonding ceremony. That's what you would call a wedding. And John has to get me something first."

Lia nodded and bounced a little in her seat. "Let me help him pick it out, please?!" In an instant she regretted her outburst. She slouched her shoulders and lowered her head, feeling like she was still in the bubble and had just shouted down everyone at the adult table. "I mean, Sir, Ma'am, I could volunteer my services. That would give the commander knowledgeable advice on quarian customs while keeping it a surprise. Which is traditional."

"There's nothing that says I can't design the _p__al'tec vis surden_ for him," retorted Tali, "If I want to tell him what kind of future he'll provide for me, then I will." She glanced over to John and his raised eyebrows, "...I mean, yeah... maybe you should help him with it after all."

John turned back to his half-eaten sandwich, catching sight of Lia out of the corner of his eye. She was staring at him, her giddiness spelled out through her body language and eyes. "We'll talk about this later, Lia," he said, "Tali has already given me some designs, but I have some questions I'll ask in private."

"Have you guys set a date yet?" asked Jane.

"No," replied Tali, answering for both of them, "we really haven't done any planning at all." Tali's heart started to flutter at the thought. She had yet to give the idea any serious consideration, beyond the fact that her groom was no longer a corpse, which would serve to make the entire affair a much more comfortable experience for the guests in attendance.

The first step in the process would be getting their bonding recognized by the fleet. That task seemed more difficult than it actually was.

Any of Tali's neighbors aboard the _Neema_, going three rooms left or right and two decks above or below, could attest to the legitimacy of their bond. Her old psychiatrist Elan'Shiya could attest to it as well. Even her father must have held little doubt. He was an admiral of the Fleet who had openly allowed his daughter to participate in an extremely dangerous mission with the only man she ever loved. That also meant that Shala must have agreed to it; her aunt had made it known long ago that any decisions regarding Tali's welfare had to go through her first. _Would Father have let me join John if they thought he worked for Cerberus? _she wondered,_ Probably. He had to have known there was no possible way to stop me._

John interrupted her day-dreams and mental war-gaming, "I'm going to head up to our cabin and get changed for the training at fourteen-hundred," he said, getting up to leave with his not-quite empty dishes.

"I'll come too," said Tali, "I've got to send that message to Shala and Father."

...

Tali walked into their cabin behind John, taking a seat at his desk terminal while he continued on to his set of drawers. She opened her e-mail client, checking for new messages, indifferent at not finding any. She started to compose a new one, but kept losing her train of thought as she typed, he eyes continually wandering to the human changing his clothes across the room. Somehow the novelty of the nude human had yet to wear off, even after all the time they'd spent together.

John's anatomy had become natural, to the point where she almost didn't remember what quarian men were supposed to look like in the nude. Not only had she never seen a nude member of the opposite sex in person, it had been a decade since she'd seen any other females either, and even then they hadn't been completely naked. Between John and the human/quarian interspecies 'research' she was prone to do, the thought of a sexual partner looking anything different from the man before her just seemed... disturbing.

"Tali, quit staring," John said, slipping a fresh pare of boxers on.

"Well, I will _now_. The good part is over," she replied, giggling, "Sorry, I'll get back to my letter."

Tali started typing again. As she did, John finished getting his armor on and walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and leaning in. She absentmindedly played with his fingers where they pressed into her _realk_, almost as efficient at typing one handed as she was with two.

"There, done. What do you think?"

John read over the document.

_To: Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, Rael'Zorah vas Alarei_

_From: Tali'Zorah vas Neema_

_Subject: I am requesting permission to bond with John'Shepard vas Normandy_

_Father, Aunt, as you know I began the bonding process with John'Shepard two years ago aboard the original Normandy. Later, I went into deep _felz'elt_when he was taken from me. It goes without saying that I was substantially bonded to him, and that path could have only led to one conclusion. Not so long ago he was brought back to me with a new ship and a new crew. With your approval I have rejoined him and continued down the path. I believe now we are at _silz'asul felz_, so I would greatly appreciate your consent in recording our bond in the ship's log as lifemates. Soon we will set a date for the for the formal bonding ceremony, hopefully to be held within the next six months._

_Your Daughter Always,_

_Tali'Zorah vas Neema_

"Well?" she asked, as John kept reading through the document.

"Looks good," he said.

"Really?" she asked with a twinge of surprise. She had thought he might have balked at the tone of the letter and the way it seemed to be requesting permission, rather than stating a fact. She was glad to not have that particular argument with him; he wouldn't understand what it was like growing up with Rael'Zorah as a father and Shala'Raan as an overly-protective, if understanding, surrogate mother. Not to mention that she wouldn't _dare _sign her name as 'Tali'Shepard' to them yet, despite her earlier statements to the contrary.

"Yeah, really," he confirmed, appraising the letter like an art connoisseur might appraise a painting, "It looks very pretty. All those squiggly lines and such. Beautiful, actually. One day I'll have to learn to read it. What's it say?"

"Oh. Right," she said, hitting the send button and spinning in her chair to face him, "well it says the same thing I sent to Hannah, more or less." She smiled behind her mask, knowing full-well that John rightfully suspected that there was more to the story.

Content to fold his arms across his chest and sigh, John changed the subject, "You know, I never got a chance to thank you for the kiss lest night. It was... unexpected."

"I should thank you for letting me kiss you!" she smiled up at him. After a moment's recollection, she dropped her head, hiding her visor behind a hand. "And I should thank you for putting up with my attempts at making-out for I don't know how long. Did you... enjoy it maybe? At least a little?"

"I told you I enjoyed it, and I think the evidence is clear," he smirked at her, gesturing with a thumb to the laundry hamper in the hopes she got the implied message. "I can't stop thinking about how incredible it was. How your breath felt on my face. How you _smelled_. My God, Tali, it was the best kiss of my life, hands down, cuts and all." Still smiling, he rubbed his lips with a finger, "It looks like you 'marked' me after all."

"I... marked you?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, "What do you mean? I'm confused."

"You know, biting me? You said you might do that."

"Oh!" she exclaimed with a slap on her knee, "I made that up. It's something turian men do, not quarian women."

John thought about that as she said it, wondering if Jane knew what she was in for.

"Although, I mean, I _could _do it," the engineer continued, "if you wanted me to, and if I had the proper motivation."

"That's a no on both counts," said John. He bent down to grab her hand. Gently pulling her up from his chair, he sat down in it, drawing her down on top of him using one of her suit straps as a hand-hold. He swiveled in the chair to face his terminal. "You know, I really wished I could have seen your face last night."

"Yeah, but I'm still really nervous about that," she sighed, rubbing his arms as he brought them around her.

Rather than holding her tight, his hands moved past her torso and began typing at his computer's haptic interface. "Still nervous? Tals, we share everything. We've done so much together already. I'm not some random guy on the street, so I don't understand why you need to keep that part of yourself private from me."

"It's not that John," she said quietly, holding her head low and slouching forward, elbows on her knees and fingers intertwining nervously, "I'm... scared of how I might look to you. I'm scared of how ugly I am."

She glanced up, noticing what he typed, a message to his mother about their upcoming day together. _Keelah, I completely forgot about that. Maybe I should bring a peace offering. Or a handgun. Ancestors, I should bring both._

"You're kidding, right?" asked John, still typing. When she failed to say anything, he got the disturbing impression that she was, in fact, serious. His hands abandoned the interface and pulled her in for a warm embrace. "Lets see, to start with, quarians are known to be the most human-like race, more so than asari, so there's that. I also happen to know you have _teeth_," he smiled as he said the last, snuggling his face against her neck, "and lips," he started kissing her neck, "and hair. So I'd say there's no danger of me freaking out or anything," he finished, releasing her and going back to typing.

"Yeah, but that makes it worse," she gestured as she spoke, before again settling on engaging her fingers in a furious dance for dominance, "I'm worried that I'm _ugly_ not _different_. If I was a turian, there would be no way to compare us. I mean, look at Garrus! By turian standards, the man might uglier than a krogan's butt for all we know. But he's so different from us that he's just cute."

"Uh-huh, cute Garrus. Got it. I'll be sure to tell him you said that," said John, deadpanning his response.

Tali lightly kicked him in the shin with a heel. "I'm serious! You wanted to know why I don't want you to see me and so I'm telling you. I have only ever seen three quarian faces in my life. My mom's, my aunt's, and my own. Bodies are important, and I'm not varren-ugly in that department, but faces are too. I'll tell you, I hear there are some disappointed couples when they unmask for each other the first time."

"Well, we won't be disappointed, I promise."

"You're right, _we_ won't be, because I already know what I'm getting," she reached around to rub his cheek, "_You_ might be, though. I mean, I think I'm about average, compared to human females, but... I just don't know for sure. Besides, someone like you deserves a six, and I think I'm a three, tops."

"Is that on a one-to-ten scale or a one-to-six scale?"

"One-to-six," she replied, sinking down against him.

"Well then damn right I deserve a six," he replied laughingly. Finished with the letter, he started tickling her, forcing the young woman into a fit of breathless, tinny laughter. "You know I don't give a damn what you look like-"

"Stop- Stop it! I can't-" her words were drowned in her own laughter. She got up and ran a few paces away to escape his jovial assault.

"You'll have to show me what you look like at some point." He got up to chase her down, both of them crashing to their bed together. His tickling renewed, he pressed on, "You might as well get used to the idea. Is there anything I can do to make it easier for you?"

"Yes!" she screamed, "Stop tickling me!"

He eased off her and laid back in the bed, arms behind his head.

She wrapped herself around him and continued, "You can just prepare yourself so you aren't so disappointed. Just picture in your head the most ugly, hideous human girl you can imagine. Then give her pale, violet-blue skin, something approaching freckles, some black lines on her forehead, and plain white eyes. That's my face."

"Got it. I still love you."

"Good. Do you still need to see it?"

"Yes."

"I could just keep my mask on." Even before she finished saying it, she shuddered at the thought. John deserved better than that. She wanted to show him, _desperately_ wanted to, in fact, but she also wanted him to be happy with what he saw. "Fine, I'll show you."

"Now?" he asked, turning to face her, eyes wide with anticipation.

"No!" She shoved him in the chest. "Later."

"Fine," he harrumphed, looking for the galaxy like a pouting child, "I've got to hit send on that letter and we need to get to our afternoon training exercise anyway."

He climbed out of bed and headed to his terminal, dutifully followed by his quarian fiancé. When he took a seat, she sat on his lap like it was her personal piece of furniture.

Seeing John reach for the haptic interface, she said, "You can't send this."

"Why not?" he asked.

She pointed to the screen, "Well here where you said 'I meant to tell you in person and I'm sorry Tali spoiled the surprise,' that has to go. You're not supposed to know I _spilled the beans_, as you say. I just told you that so you didn't go into dinner unaware."

"Why am I not supposed to know?" he asked, "And since when can you read English?"

"My visor detects it and translates it into Khelish," she replied, sounding a little smug, "You're not supposed to know, because she'll think that I told you the other stuff I said in that message, and maybe why I sent it in the first place."

"Well-"

"Forget it John," she cut him off, "That's between me and her. Please don't ask what you're thinking, as a favor to me."

John became pensive, chewing his scabbed bottom lip for a few seconds. "Alright, deal. You want to rewrite it for me?"

"No."

"Okay," he smiled to himself, rubbing her stomach, "This dinner is going to be interesting, isn't it?"

"Yes."

...

"Thanks, Jack," said Jane, pulling her top down over her freshly tattooed and medi-gelled back and rolling off the woman's cot, "The lines are so clean, and the colors are perfect."

"No prob," she said, "You get enough of 'em and you either run out of money or get tired of sleeping with the artists. It helps if you can do it yourself."

"Ehh... You never asked for money," Jane started scratching at the back of her neck, "You're not gonna ask to shag me, are ya?"

"Ew, no. But I've been looking through that data you gave me," she replied, putting her tattoo machine away, "and I might have a favor in mind when I'm done with your tat. You're brother now... different story if he wants some ink done."

"What do you want from me?" she asked, clasping her armor into place around her "tell me quick cause we've got to get to Johnny's training."

"I want to blow up my old Cerberus prison."

"Right, we'll have a go at it," she nodded on her way up the stairs, "Talk more later."

As she reached out to palm the elevator interface, she happened to glance at the port cargo hold, remembering the ship's newest piece of luggage. Walking to the hold, she opened it with the wave of a hand and stepped inside. Eyeing the tank suspiciously, she commed her brother, "Hey, Nee, before we do this training thing, do you want to deal with this krogan?"

"_Yeah, I guess I could spare a minute, I'll meet you down there._"

She closed the connection and turned to EDI's holo-pad. "What can you tell me about this thing?"

"_The subject is stable, Captain. Integration with onboard systems was seamless. The subject is an exceptional example of the krogan species, with fully formed primary, secondary, and tertiary organs, where applicable. No defects of any kind-_"

Jane mulled over that. She's seen some tough krogan in her day, Wrex being the foremost, and if they weren't perfect then... "Any idea how dangerous this guy is?"

"_He's a krogan, Shepard_," there was no way EDI wasn't rolling a set of imaginary eyes when she said that, "_If you are asking if he's actively hostile, I don't have the necessary data to answer. Okeer's technology could impart data, not methods of thinking. The subject may know of his views, but would not necessarily share them_."

Just as Jane pondered her next question, useless though it might prove to be, the door to the hold opened, allowing her brother entrance. "So, you ready?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, looking over the controls and finding them locked out, "lets do this."

"_Cerberus protocols are very clear regarding untested alien technology_," interjected EDI.

"Too bad I don't know what they are," retorted Jane, "and I won't be second guessed on my own ship... _by_ my own ship. Do it."

"_Very well, Shepard. The controls are online. The switch- and consequences- are yours._"

"Yeah, I needed to hear that." She turned to John, "Guns out, Nee."

John pulled out his Incisor, expanding it and loading a fresh thermal magazine. He took a position in one far corner of the room. Jane retrieved her Claymore and advanced on the tank, her hand looming over the controls. In a flash, she slapped the release button and retreated to the other far corner of the room.

The glass front of the tanks slid open, releasing gallons of solution, and with it a young krogan male. He hit the deck with a heavy thud, landing on his hands and knees.

"Charge and we're blowing your head off," said John as the beast started to regain his wits. He sincerely hoped that the creature had been given a translator along with his armor, or at the very least been taught that it was a bad idea to attack things that were pointing long, cylindrical objects at their faces.

The krogan tank-borne got to his feet and narrowed his gaze, appraising the pair of creatures before him. "Humans. Male and Female. Before you die, I need a name."

"I'm commander John Shepard, and this is my sister, captain Jane Shepard, and I don't think we'll be dying any time soon."

"Not your names. Mine. I am trained, I know things, but the tank... Okeer couldn't implant connection. His words are hollow." The krogan appeared to think for a moment. "Warlord... Legacy... Grunt... Grunt was among the last. It has no meaning. It'll do. I am grunt. If you two are worthy of your commands, prove your strength and try to destroy me." He started towards Jane, balling his hands into fists.

"Uhhh... Are you _really_ sure you want that?" asked Jane, her index finger hovering over the firing stud, her weapon not wavering in the slightest.

The krogan stopped in his tracks. "Want? I do what I am meant to, fight and reveal the strongest. Nothing in the tank ever asked what I want. I feel nothing for Okeer's clan or his enemies. That imprint failed. He has failed. Without a reason that's mine, one fight is as good as any other. Might as well start with you two."

"Look idiot," Jane growled, "It's not gonna be a fight. It's gonna be two seconds of loud bangs followed by two hours of cleaning your leftovers out of the cargo hold."

John sighed, "Listen, if you need something to fight, we're going up against the strongest enemies in the galaxy and putting down anyone dumb enough to stand in our way. You either can join us, die here, or be dropped off on Tuchanka and spend your days battling it out over a few meters of nuclear wasteland."

"Your words are wise, male Shepard. And you've got a quad, female Shepard. If I find a clan, if I find what I... What I want... I think I will be honored to eventually pit them against you two." He held out a hand, a very human gesture.

Jane took the hand with a smile, "Glad to have you aboard."

John took it next, saying, "Welcome to the team."

...

Still sore from extremely physical nature of John's combat training, Tali waited patiently as he and Jane spoke with Liara's assistant. She found a corner of the reception area and began massaging her aching muscles.

She'd been expecting to get beat up during the exercise, given that its focus had been unarmed combat in an urban environment, but her finely orchestrated battle with Jack had deteriorated into nothing more than a wild varren fight, and for absolutely no good reason that she could determine. Furtively, Tali shifted her eyes to the ex-con, taking advantage of her glowing pupil's inability to give away their exact position. She couldn't help but sneer when she found the woman shamelessly staring right back at her. The engineer's expression curled into a grin when she took in the evidence left by the vast array of injuries she had visited upon the human.

Tali had easily held the upper hand in the match until the woman brought her biotics to bear. From that point until near the end, it was all she could do to ensure her visor wasn't smashed wide open as Jack flung her about the room. That was _not_ the way she had wanted John to finally see her face.

'Unarmed' was a relative term, though, especially for a skilled quarian with an omni-tool, and she had taken full advantage of that glaring loop-hole. The way she figured it, she was more likely to lose an actual arm in combat than her omni-tool, so it wasn't cheating. After all, one of them she could pick up and keep using; the other, she could not.

Between landing from one biotic slam and taking off from another, she had sent not one, but two drones out, both occupying Jack's attention. With some breathing room opened up by Chiktikka and her as-yet unnamed drone, she released an energy drain, the better to funnel some of the woman's biotic powers into her suit's shield systems. Then she had used a damping field to make it that much harder for her to counter-attack. In the midst of an ongoing barrage like that, it had been a simple enough matter to pin the young human female in a leg-lock and end the match.

Jack's eyes left her visor, looking now at something directly across from Tali. The quarian followed her eyes, eyes that almost seemed misty and weighed down with a touch of sadness. _Keelah, no fucking way... Stare at him all you want, 'cause it'll never happen. _

Tali wasn't angry at all; she could hardly blame the woman for wanting John. She herself had had an attraction to him from almost the moment she met him. Seeing that Jack felt the same only meant that her body-art belied her good taste in men, which was somewhat surprising. Never would she have thought that John was this woman's type. _Who are you kidding, girl? Rich, famous, and gorgeous? John could be as dull as a post and as dumb as a brick and he'd still be fighting women off with a stick._

Tali shrugged. If their fight had been more personal than she first thought, then so be it. Win, lose, or draw, it wasn't going to accomplish anything except remind the ex-con of what she couldn't have and give the quarian a little more practice at hurting people.

The twins turned away from Liara's assistant and started for the office door, "Tali, Garrus, lets say hello. The rest of you guys stand fast."

The large group milling about the foyer, which amounted to the entire ground team save Miranda, who elected to keep watch aboard the _Normandy_, started chatting in small groups, activating their omni-tools, or checking their weapons.

John palmed the interface and stepped inside, followed by Jane, Garrus, and finally Tali. Liara had her back to the group, engaged in a heated discussion with a timid looking human over a holo-comm.

"Have you faced an asari commando unit before?" she asked, "Few humans have," she began pacing back and forth in front of the image, "I'll make it simple. Either you pay me, or I flay you alive. With my mind."

John gave a deliberate cough. Jane folded her arms and waited. There was nothing in Liara's words that they found particularly shocking. If one took an archaeologist to a gun-fight, there was bound to be some lasting ill-effects. Hopefully she was seeking counseling or some other treatment.

The asari turned her head to the noise and finally caught sight of the diverse ensemble invading her office, "Shepards! Nyxaris, hold my calls," she said to the assistant that no one had noticed slipping in behind the group.

She closed the gap to the twins with a trio of confident strides, taking Jane into a warm embrace. Coming within centimeters of pressing her lips against the human's, Garrus' image stepped into her periphery at the last possible instant, forcing her into a sudden course correction. She planted her kiss on Jane's cheek, released her, and did the same thing to John.

"My sources said you two were alive," she choked out, fighting back tears, "but I... Seeing you in person... I'm so happy, so relieved." She took in the other pair of familiar faces in the room and smiled. "Tali, Garrus. I'm so glad to see you as well. I knew that if any of the old crew would be by their side, it would be the both of you."

"Thanks, Liara," said Garrus, striding up to her and pulling her into a hug, one which she awkwardly returned.

Tali grunted with a curt nod, arms folded under her chest.

"So what are you up to here on Illium?" asked Liara, taking a seat behind her desk, "It wasn't just to see me, was it?"

"Not _just _to see you," said John, "We're here to pick up three more recruits, and make some dinner reservations for an evening with Mom."

"Really?" asked Liara excitedly, opening up an extra-net window on her terminal, "How's Hannah doing? I know a few places that she just _loves _to visit when the _Kilimanjaro_ is in port."

John raised an eyebrow and leaned forward, "She's fine, I think..."

Jane decided on a less circumspect approach, "I know you're an information broker and all, but why are you spying on our Mom?"

"Spying?" Liara was taken aback, "Goddess, no Jane, she and I meet up every time she's here. She even took me on a tour of Austria when I vacationed on Earth last year. She didn't mention that we'd been keeping in touch?"

"No..." John said slowly, tracing circles with a finger on her desk.

"You haven't talked to her at all, have you?" asked Liara, slapping her hand down near his, biotics just starting to bend light around her. "She's probably worried sick about you!"

"Liara, we're going to be spending the whole day together," said John, placing his hand over the one she had lashed out with, "Plenty of time to catch up with her. And I _did_ message her, yesterday."

"Why Austria?" asked Jane, refusing to care that she had somehow upset the asari, "sounds pretty boring to me. Plus, Mom's never been there before, that I can remember."

"Wha...?" Liara asked, stymied by the other woman's non-sequitur. Had it been anyone else, she might have gotten upset by the obvious distraction, or at least frowned, but not for Jane. "I... Well, I found it interesting. There were some great beaches, we went out on the ocean to do some fantastic diving, there were animals called horses that I got to ride-"

"Wait," said John, pointing a finger at her and frowning, "You went diving. In the ocean. Off the coast... Of Austria?"

The twins broke into rapturous laughter, John holding his head in his hand and chuckling, Jane throwing her head back and belting her laughter out in loud bursts.

"Yes, Shepards, what so-"

Jane and John's omni-tools chimed and illuminated, breaking up the revelry. The twins shared a glance, and the brother nodded to his sister. "This is Jane, go ahead," she said carefully into her comm.

"_Captain, Commander, this is the XO. We've got an emergency. The collectors have been spotted on orbital descent above the planet Horizon. We need to move quick if we are going to intercept them."_

John nodded again, never taking his eyes off his sister.

"Go ahead and issue a general recall," said Jane, "We'll be there in a minute."

As the twins got up and Tali and Garrus turned to the door, Liara followed after them. "Wait, what about your three recruits? What about them?" she asked.

"We'll have to pick them up later, after we handle this," he replied, walking down the stairs, Liara hot on his heels, "It shouldn't take long. Either we get there and we can make a difference, or we can't and we're all dead."

"Or we're too late and there's nothing left," added Jane, pressing a hand into her brother's back, ushering him onward, "Don't forget that."

"I could look into tracking your people down for you," said Liara, placing a hand on John's shoulder, desperate to help in any way she could. "Who are they?"

"A drell assassin named Thane Krios, an asari justicar named Samara, and you." said John, still walking to the docking area and showing no signs of slowing.

"Oh, I see," said Liara, "I'll do what I can." They continued to walk in silence, guilty features marring the asari's normally placid expression.

"And can you handle the reservations for us? Dinner this Friday?" asked John, turning to face her. "I'm sorry to drop that on you, but you know this place, know where the four of us," he waved a hand to Jane, Tali, and Garrus, "and Mom all might feel comfortable."

Liara nodded. That had been code for 'find a place that served a wide variety of dextro and levo cuisine, and would make a quarian feel welcome.' The latter requirement would mandate some searching on a planet like Illium, but it shouldn't be too challenging.

As for Hannah, she had always liked to unwind when on shore leave. Formal dinners, the asari had been told, had stopped being fun sometime between Hannah's academy graduation dinner and graduating the academy. Liara turned to leave, but not before hugging the pair goodbye. She had just the place in mind.

"Oh, and Liara," called Jane as she was about to head down the Normandy's docking bridge, "My XO is from Austria. We'll bring her along next time. You can tell her all about your stay there"

...

_From: Liara T'Soni_

_To: Hannah Shepard_

_Subject: Re: Thank you for saving my children_

_Hey Hannah, Jane and Johnny stopped by the office today. They want to have dinner with you on Friday, three days from now, and asked me to find a good place. What about Eternity? I think I can get you all a private room and the bartender there seems to be really friendly._

_-Liara_

Within minutes, the asari's omni-tool chimed. She activated it, opening the unread message at the top of her inbox.

_From: Hannah Shepard_

_To: Liara T'Soni_

_Subject: That would be wonderful_

_Liara, go ahead and make the reservation, I think the casual atmosphere might make things easier for all concerned. But please, make the reservation for six. You should come as well, my treat, and I will not take no for an answer. See you then._

_~Hannah_

Smiling to herself, Liara activated her comm, "Hello, Matriarch Aethyta, this Friday we'll need to find a new sitter..."

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	12. Don't Tread On Me

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Chapter 12: Don't Tread On Me

"Shepards. I think we have them."

"That's a little optimistic," Jane scoffed at the hologram, unable and unwilling to keep the smirk from her face.

"Miranda told us they're hitting a colony in the Terminus called Horizon," added John.

"I'm glad she's keeping you up to date," The Illusive Man replied through a haze of exhaled smoke, "It just went silent. That means if it isn't under attack, it soon will be. Has Mordin delivered the countermeasure for the seeker swarms?"

"Yup," Jane said without emotion. She gave every appearance that the meeting bored her, and it was almost certainly doing just that. She stood next to her brother with a hip cocked out, making a show of examining her nails for dirt and picking at them with a thumb.

"Excellent. There's something else you should know," said the man, "One of your former crew, Ashley Williams, is stationed on Horizon." He smiled an sipped at a tumbler of hard liquor.

Between the man's excessive drinking and smoking, John thought he looked good for his purported age. "Is Ashley still Alliance?" he asked, "That's what I keep hearing. Why is she out in the Terminus Systems?"

The man took a final drag from his cigarette before carefully using the remaining embers to light another. "Officially, it's an outreach program to improve Alliance relations with the colonies," he said between puffs, "They're up to something, and if they sent operations chief Williams, then it must be big."

"I'll have to congratulate her on her promotion," said John. He had been looking forward to reuniting with the woman since he'd been brought back. She had stepped up in a big way when he lost his first gunnery chief on Eden prime. "We should notify the Alliance. If she's involved then that means they'd want to know. We could use the back-up anyway."

"I'm sure you will," said The Illusive Man, casting a dubious mechanical eye on the Spectre, "For better or for worse."

John suddenly felt uncomfortable, certain that the head of Cerberus had just implied that he knew about their continued involvement with the human government. What did the terrorist mastermind expect? He revived two career Alliance officers, and they were just supposed to forget all about whatever sense of duty that had kept them wearing the uniform for so long?

Jane spat on the floor of the conference room before speaking up, "What's that supposed to mean, Timmy?"

"It means I'm not stupid, young lady," he replied, sitting forward in his chair and frowning, "You two and your _entire_ team, to include the krogan and the shirtless convict, go around telling everyone you're Alliance, according to what I've been hearing from Illium. Every single one of my corporate logos has been replaced by Alliance ones. As if those weren't obvious enough, my best operative signed her last message to me as 'Staff Lieutenant Miranda Lawson.' Accidentally I hope."

Jane couldn't pass up an opportunity to laugh in the man's face. It was forced, but it got the point across.

The man scowled at her, "Most damning of all is that Alliance _public_ records now list you two as on active duty instead of _dead in a hole._ So what's that supposed to mean? Did they do that just on the hopes you'll come back to them? Are you on special assignment, enjoying the sights of the galaxy courtesy of Cerberus tours? Or do you believe that _they_ are now covertly governing this mission?"

Again Jane laughed at the man, this time for real, "Cerberus tours! Priceless. That one. I pick that one."

"We've found that we get better results," said John diplomatically, "if we act like we're Alliance and according to Alliance regs."

"Oh, really?" said The Illusive Man, "including the ones about fraternization?"

John looked away briefly before turning back to the man, embarrassed at having been caught. _Whatever. Technically I'm on leave. I can do what I want._

Jane, meanwhile, started making thrusting motions with her hips. She capped it off by patting John on the back, saying "Dextro for the win, right?" She wasn't helping.

"Look Shepards, I don't care about your personal lives _or_ any affiliation you may or may not have with the Alliance. I care about results, and so far you're doing quite well. Getting us back on track, _Jane_," he hissed the woman's name, "what are your questions?"

"I've got one," said John, "You're telling me that the collectors just happened to pick a colony with one of my former teammates? Back on Haestrom it seemed like the geth were only there for Tali. Are they really making this personal?"

Everything had felt different during that battle, in the heat of the moment. When he had rescued Tali from the geth, he had been convinced that they were only on that planet to target her as a way to get to him. As little as a day afterwards, he began to second guess that hypothesis. It still didn't make much sense that they would focus so much effort on harming him and Jane personally. The news that Ashley was on the colony made him rethink it for a second time.

"It shouldn't be a surprise that the collectors are interested in you two," he replied, "Especially if they're working for the reapers. The same goes for the geth. Just like what may have been the case with Miss Zorah, they might be going after Mrs. Williams to get at the both of you."

"Sons of bitches," muttered Jane.

"For that matter," added The Illusive Man, "there are hundreds of very large stations with both humans and aliens on them where the collectors could have released their plague. You know, the one designed to kill every race that isn't us or a vorcha."

The Illusive Man smirked and took another drag of his cigarette while Jane clenched her fists and set her jaw, visibly fuming in anger. She knew what he was getting at.

"Yet the collectors happened to pick the one with your boyfriend on it, young lady," he finished.

"Did you know he was there?!" asked Jane in a fit of rage, stepping further into the room and reaching for hologram's neck, as if she might somehow throttle the stoic man through the quantum entanglement relay. Unable to gain purchase on the man's collar, she settled for folding her arms and looking very pissed.

"No, Jane, I didn't," he said, "But given that I wanted the best damn turian fighter I could find for the team, and one who had no fixed job or relationship to hold him back, I'd say, in hindsight of course, that the chances of Archangel being Garrus were no less than one-hundred percent."

"What about Tali?" John asked, "Did you know she was on Freedom's Progress?"

"Yes," he said simply, "Consider it a happy surprise. I like surprises, don't you? I didn't hand you a packet with Karin's or Jeff's names listed as crew, either. Frankly, given your history and what I know about quarians, I'm a little shocked she didn't join you then and there."

"And that's why you didn't tell me about Ash?" he asked, "It's a surprise?"

"No. I sent you to Freedom's Progress to recruit Tali," he said, holding his drink out to the side. An assistant filled it up for him. "I didn't tell you where Ashley was specifically because I didn't want you wasting your time recruiting her. She has other obligations. Until this moment, there was no good reason to send you there at all."

"You don't know she won't come with us," protested Jane, stabbing at the man with a finger.

"Yes, I do," he said, "Let's hope your countermeasures work"

With that, he closed the connection, leaving Jane and John scant time to call Hackett and Anderson for reinforcements and then come up with a plan. They would be hitting the Tasale relay and entering the orbit of Horizon in a matter of hours.

...

The shuttle touched down on the outskirts of the colony's primary city with John's team disembarking moments later. He led they way, followed closely by Tali, Lia behind her, and Jack and Grunt practically pushing each other like siblings to be the next one out. Somehow the two of them made it through the craft's portal, managing to get stuck together for only a second. The group ran in a cluster to the city's outer wall and took up defensive positions.

The Hammerhead touched down just as the shuttle made its take-off, the rear gate of the craft opening to reveal Garrus and his team. The wide ramp made for a much more professional entrance, the turian staff lieutenant strolling down in front, his team members arrayed in a wedge behind him. To his right walked Zaeed and then Mordin, to his left, Kasumi and Jacob. Together, they used tactically sound movements to make their way to the wall opposite John's team.

John shook his head at the display. It was his fault, of course. He had wanted the professionals, the veterans, to stay with Garrus so the Spectre could spend more time focusing on the amateurs. That left him with what amounted to two children and one convict, plus Tali and himself. At least he couldn't fault his group for intensity and motivation. He saluted the Hammerhead and was treated to the wave by Miranda from the vehicle's cockpit.

"Ops, we're at LZ one," he said over his comm, "all green. We're departing for the objective now. How are things up there? ETA on Alliance?"

"_Black Knight six... Ops..._" his sister replied through his omni-tool, the woman's voice barely audible through a torrent of static.

Thinking quickly her turned to Tali and whispered, "What's going on? Can you fix it?"

She opened her omni-tool, saying "I can try."

He nodded and turned back to his omni-tool, only picking out the odd intelligible word or two.

"_...all kinds... interference... can't... signal. Alliance... delayed... hours..._"

"There's nothing I can do," said Tali, placing a hand on his shoulder, "That dreadnaught is using broad-band brute-force jamming to block any signals. We're on our own."

John nodded and waved Mordin over with a hand, "How well will your seeker-swarm defense hold up?"

"Certainty impossible," he replied, "but in limited numbers, should confuse detection, make us invisible to swarms."

John nodded, motioning for the salarian to return to his team.

"In Theory," the professor added while leaving.

"In theory?" asked Tali, her head tilted.

Mordin turned back to the pair, "Experimental technology. Only test is contact with seeker swarms. Look forward to seeing if we survive."

"Spiders, bugs, and seekers," muttered Tali, "this is all your fault, John."

The man looked at her with a cocked eyebrow.

"Yes!" she said, sounding exasperated, "before you aliens came along, we were perfectly happy living our lives without all those creepy-crawly things."

"Well, I didn't put them here," he replied defensively, "Humans weren't around for the first two millennia-"

"Don't care," she shushed him with a finger, "Your fault."

John grunted and smacked her on the bottom, forcing her to stifle a squeal. Message received, she turned away from him to focus on the task at hand.

Without even short-range comms, the Spectre used a hand-signal to communicate his desire to get the operation moving. Garrus nodded back to him and the teams started to move, Miranda slowly bringing up the rear in the Hammerhead.

John and his team took the right-side approach, while the turian and his team took the left side. Despite limited time to plan, the Spectre and his executive officer, along with Jane and her executive officer, managed to hammer out a feasible operation order. Tali and Jacob sat in to provide oversight from a tech and weapons standpoint, respectively. Rehearsals and other preparation followed. They weren't as prepared as he wanted, but they never would be.

...

The team had encountered the collectors almost as soon as they entered the city and, thankfully for all concerned, their countermeasure against the seekers seemed to work just fine. They had caught the enigmatic aliens off guard as they busily loaded the colonists onto their shuttles, managing to prevent quite a few humans from being transported to their large dreadnaught.

Zaeed had suggested that they were being used to make more husks, but that didn't sit right with those who had experience from the Saren Campaign, namely John, Garrus, and Tali. Anyone wanting to create husks would have just planted _dragon's teeth_ in the center of the colony as the geth had done on Eden Prime. It made no sense to cart the colonists all the way back to the ship just to convert them there, and Tali had said as much. Experimentation was the only other option that had come to mind, as sinister and revolting as it seemed.

In short order they'd managed to kill off quite a few more of the bug-like aliens, much to Tali's relief and Grunt's enjoyment, before finding another possible solution to the collector problem on Horizon.

Due to the size and destructive capabilities of the collector vessel, the _Normandy_ had to lay low in geosynchronous orbit on the other side of the planet, available for only the most suicidal of close air-support and evac missions. That meant that nothing could stop the alien vessel if the Alliance failed to arrive in a timely manner, and whatever humans that had already fallen prey to the collectors were most likely done for. The only thing left for John and his ground team to do was damage control.

That had been the prevailing notion until a terrified colonist informed the group that the colony did, in fact, have the means to defend itself and perhaps disable the monstrous ship. Multiple defensive laser turrets, of sufficient wattage to do some real damage to a dreadnaught-sized vessel, ringed the colony. All they needed to do was to calibrate the system, much to the delight of Garrus.

Given the time constraints, however, the turian fire-control officer could not be the one to calibrate the weapons, leaving that duty instead to the ship's resident artificial intelligence. To that end, the group found themselves in a cluttered courtyard, having fought their way to a high intensity transmitter capable of maintaining a two-way uplink between the _Normandy_ and the colony's defensive system.

Tali had just finished gaining access to the transmitter when John posed their idea to his sister.

"Ops, this is Black Knight six, over," he said into the terminal's audio pick-ups.

"_I'm so glad to hear your voice, six, go for Ops, over,_" said his sister through the comm.

"Roger, Ops, we've got some defensive guns here that we need brought online and calibrated, break," He paused, an idea having just formed in his head, "Ops, I just had a thought. Can the _Normandy_ make an FTL jump to a few light-minutes away, maybe one AU or so, and blast that ship's drive section? It's stationary so you shouldn't need to predict where it will be when the shot arrives. You could jump away, shoot, then jump back into hiding."

"_Negative, Sir_," EDI answered for the captain,_ "Even though the target is stationary, given the necessary shot elevation, we would need to account for the effects of gravity, wind resistance, the curvature of the planet, and the planet's magnetosphere. That makes it a virtually impossible task for the fire-control crew and the weapons VI."_

"Well that sucks," said John.

"_Yes. It does 'suck'_," agreed EDI, "_In addition,_ _adjusting the Thanix charge to a velocity that is both sufficient for timely projectile delivery and yet slow enough to prevent destruction to the surrounding urbanized area and its inhabitants is also nearly impossible for the crew and VI. If given control of the ship's weapons systems, I could possibly complete this task."_

John felt a hand tighten on his shoulder. He turned to see Tali behind him, the poor girl's eyes so wide he could almost make out a few facial features in the accumulated light.

"Uh, not now, EDI," he said, "Thanks though. That'll be a plan B. What about the defensive turrets?"

"_That will not be a problem,_" she said, "_but it will take time to upload the necessary corrections into the colony's defensive systems. Due to the jamming, the connection is minimal at best, and therefore slow._"

"That doesn't sound good," John said wearily. He didn't like the idea of sitting and waiting.

"_It is not good_," she said,"_For the duration of the upload, I recommend a defensive posture. I have to activate the weapon system to begin the process, and I will not be able to mask the increased generator output._"

John liked the idea of sitting and getting shot at even less. Plan B was beginning to sound better and better. "Any other ideas?" he asked.

"_Just one_," replied the artificial intelligence, "_Enemy reinforcements are closing in. I suggest you ready your weapons._"

"Well, fuck me sideways," muttered John.

"Later," said Tali, patting his back.

The teams retreated to cover, John's team heading to a platform on the north side of the courtyard, while Garrus took his to the west near where they had entered. The former C-Sec officer and Kasumi took cover behind some crates, while the rest of his team hunkered down in positions behind the engines of the patiently waiting Hammerhead.

The two teams' fields of fire would intersect, turning the center of the large area into a no-man's land of high-velocity destruction. Miranda would make expert use of her craft's primary gun, having been given instructions to zero-in on the scions and any collectors that started talking.

Within seconds of taking their positions, countless enemies swarmed the area. Husks poured in from all around, some even closing in from behind John's position. He hadn't realized that until he heard Tali shriek and he felt one of the things punch him in the back of the head. When he turned around to shoot, it was already dead, the victim of a severe case of quarian knife-to-the-brain.

During bouts of rigorous, chemical-fueled time-dilation, and between head-shots, he took the opportunity to observe his team in action. It was the kind of valuable battlefield intel would be crucial in keeping everyone alive down the line.

This was the first time he'd seen Grunt in action, and as expected, the krogan liked to get up-close and personal with his enemies. That could be an issue. He had learned quickly enough to stay away from the targets that were most likely to be hit with high-explosives or biotic blasts. That meant he avoided the tougher targets, while blowing away smaller ones like husks and drones, sometimes up to five at a time, and sometimes using only his bare hands.

Garrus and Zaeed, much like John himself, were interchangeable in terms of fighting styles. Both men liked the mid-to-long range, and stayed well clear of anything that wanted to walk over and introduce itself. For all their bluster about hand-to-hand prowess, they ran as fast as they could when something got too close.

Jack looked like she couldn't make up her mind in combat. She seemed content enough to use biotics at a distance, until something would piss her off and she'd invariably charge the object of her aggression, screaming insults. She would invariably kill whatever it was, notice how exposed she had left herself, run back to her position, and repeat.

Tali did essentially the same thing, but with an entirely different motivation. She always preferred to charge into the fray, shotgun first, up to her facemask in enemies, but she ardently resisted that urge when things got really hot. When that happened, she had a compulsory need to remain by John's side. It made things difficult for the young woman when there were no targets within range of her shotgun, but she could still reach out and touch something with her drones or her pistol.

In an odd moment of distraction, it occurred to John that he could get the young woman a pistol-scope for her birthday, but he had no idea when that was. He was sure she had told him once, but his inability to remember suggested that he had somehow forgotten. He was a terrible fiancé and he felt terrible. Seeing another Harbinger's head explode made him feel a little better, though.

Lia stayed so close to him that one could almost call it inappropriate, especially given her little stunt in the mess-hall the other day. He still hadn't said anything to her about it, and he probably wouldn't unless it happened again. She knew she was wrong. For the moment though, he accepted that it was fear that kept her rubbing shoulders with him. He was willing to put up with whatever it took to keep her combat-effective. It seemed to be working, she was laying waste to quite a few husks and collectors, as she had been doing for the duration of the mission. She even got a few headshots. After seeing that, he felt sure that Garrus would try to take credit for teaching her to shoot. That was pure fabrication, of course. John had taught the girl everything she knew.

He didn't know what to make of Mordin and Jacob. Both seemed very capable, both were mid-range fighters, but their skill sets were just to varied for a soldier like himself to judge. They had some tech, some proficiency with firearms, and some biotics in the case of the former Alliance marine. The professor seemed to have an elemental theme going on, freezing, burning, or electrocuting everything in sight. On the whole, he felt pleased with their abilities.

That left Kasumi. John would have love to see her in action, but he couldn't. That was the point, he supposed. Every so often a collector or a husk would drop over dead, a gaping hole hollowed out of its throat. Hopefully she was observing her surroundings well enough to avoid any crossfire.

The Spectre let his Incisor's reticle hover over a collector's head for a moment and pulled the trigger. It's barrier depleted, the thing's face crumpled in on itself, one of its four eyes rocketing out of his view, accompanied by a shower of gore. Without lowering his weapon, he scanned for fresh targets with both eyes open. Seeing none, he lowered the rifle and turned to Tali.

"Anything on the perimeter?" he asked her.

"Something, yes," she replied, "looks like some kind of drop-ship..."

As John relayed the information to the rest of the ground team, the engineer searched the horizon for signs of the incoming vehicle. Spotting something off in the distance, her heart started racing. It wasn't a ship.

"Look at that!" she yelled for John's attention, pointing at an enormous flying grotesquery, "Whatever it is, don't get too close."

The thing appeared to be a mechanical cross between a crab and a spider, roughly the size of a Kodiak shuttle. Inside a close approximation to a mouth, the heads of no less than two dozed husks could be seen, mouths agape as if wailing some kind of terrible dirge. Though it had no visible weapons, John seriously doubted that was the case.

Almost as soon as Tali pointed, the sky lit up with a brilliant display of biotics and firepower, high velocity rounds instantly superheating the air around them into bright plasma. Loud cracking noises from shotguns and sniper rifles interspersed the chattering of automatic weapons fire, only to be completely drowned out every few seconds by the Hammerhead's main gun. Periodically, an explosion of sufficient magnitude would detonate on or about the creature, causing everyone's noise cancellation systems activate, leaving them in a mute hell.

Although it appeared agile, the beast lumbered about like a jellyfish in a swimming pool, almost halfheartedly focusing its attention on John, moving slowly to his position, unleashing at him pair of high-intensity particle beams. That was fine with him; it gave him an opportunity to take a breather behind cover. His nine other teammates, plus Miranda in the hover-tank, would do a fine job of beating the thing into a pulp.

At some point, the creature must have realized its greatest threat came not from the commander, but from the Hammerhead. It began making its way to the vehicle, cooking its hull with its lasers along the way. Every few seconds it would drop to the ground, presumably seeking cover, and recharge its barriers much to the dismay of the team. Despite heavy damage to its carapace and internals, the thing refused to relent or yield a single centimeter. Still it continued to fire at the team's armor support, to the point where parts of it glowed a dull red and it could not return fire for fear of overheating.

John realized he had to get Miranda to pop the hatch and run, even if it meant she would face the beast in such close proximity. Bringing up his omni-tool to relay a message to the operative, he hit the 'call' button just as the creature started shaking.

"_Yes... Commander..._" he heard the woman yell. She didn't sound good. Listening to the pain in her voice, he was both deeply impressed with her ability to stay and fight, and seriously worried for her health.

"I-" he was cut off by the sight of construct disintegrating into thin air, still under a constant barrage of gunfire and biotic attacks. "I was just going to say that you should get out of that thing. It's got to be hot as hell in there, so it's still probably a good idea."

"_Sir,_" she struggled to reply. The reach hatch opened and the woman fell to the deck, practically rolling out, and collapsed into Jacob's arms at the base of the ramp.

"EDI, how much longer? Any more collectors coming?" he asked over the comm.

"_The timing of your query could not have been better, Sir,_" as she finished speaking, the laser turrets swung to face the floating capital ship, pounding the ship with volley after volley of high intensity weapons fire. "_Collector reserves were dispatched, but are now returning to their vessel. It is likely that they will attempt a tactical withdrawal._"

"Damn," said John, closing the connection. In his head, he had already started planning for when the Alliance arrived in force and they could join them in a proper raid of the ship. Escape for the collectors would mean certain death for the colonists. Hopefully the guns would do their job.

Seconds ticked by as he waited breathlessly, hoping the damned ship would topple sideways. It almost appeared as if it had worked, until he watched the vessel's hull configuration change. Gradually, it took off into the sky, picking up speed as it gained altitude. The guns tracked it with their shots, but it was no use. The ship was gone, and with it, the colonists.

"Shit! Fuuuck!" he yelled, upset at the galaxy, the collectors, the reapers, and himself. He pounded a fist on a nearby railing, denting it under the force of his cybernetics, sending a loud clanging noise throughout the courtyard. All eyes turned to him. "It's over people. Lets salvage what we can and get the fuck outta here. Miri, radio for pick-up."

Still groggy and drinking from Jacob's canteen as she leaned against him, the woman nodded and opened her omni-tool. Garrus gathered both teams and led them on a search of the area, looking for anything that might be useful. Hopefully he would find some trace evidence that might tell them where the enemy could be heading.

"It's not your fault, John," said Tali, walking up to her human and pulling him in for a hug.

He didn't want to be hugged right now. He didn't deserve it. He wanted to push her away and spend the next few hours desecrating collector corpses. Unfortunately, that would send the wrong message to the team, and more importantly, to Tali. Instead, he accepted the affection. "I know it's not my fault," he lied, "And I did everything I could," he lied again.

Tali said nothing, but feeling he was unwilling to reciprocate the embrace, she tightened her hug that much more. If John didn't want to give as good as he was getting, that was fine with her. She would hug him hard enough for the both of them.

"Sorry, Sir, don't mean to break up the moment, but I just wanted to say hello."

The human and quarian turned to the familiar voice. "Ashley!" they both said in unison.

"It's great to see you guys," she held out a hand and John shook it. When she turned to Tali, the young woman practically jumped on her, hugging the woman in much the same way she had done with her _inszel_.

The operations chief wasn't prepared for that. A grunting noise escaped her lips as her eyes bulged, but she returned the embrace nonetheless.

"Sorry," muttered Tali, feeling self conscious about her unprofessional behavior. Ashley had taken a liking to the young woman during their time together, but that didn't mean she was ready to be pounced on.

"It's okay, Tali," she said, looking at the quarian and then at the scattered ground team, "Really." She turned to John, "So, you and the skipper back on the horse? And with Tali and Garrus I see," she waved to the turian in the middle of the courtyard. He flared his mandibles and waved back.

"Yeah, we're doing good things," he replied as Tali moved to stand by his side.

"So I've heard," she said, "It's not surprising seeing the four of you back together. How's the new team working out?"

"No complaints so far," he replied, "And the reunion doesn't have to end with the Shepards and their significant others," he pulled Tali a little tighter to him and was rewarded with a soft noise of happiness, "You should come with us. Jane still needs a chaplain. Badly. Just like old times."

"I'd love to come with you and the skip, but I can't," she said, not looking sad or remorseful about it, but rather earnest, "I've got a commitment I can't break away from."

"Alliance?" asked John, "I could talk to Hackett and Anderson about it. They'd get you reassigned to me in a heartbeat. Unofficially of course..."

"No, Sir, not that," she looked down and hesitated, "I've got a significant other of my own. I don't want to go too much into it, but he's got some special needs. I can't bring him along with me, and I can't leave him alone."

"Oh, okay," said John, suddenly feeling bad without knowing why, "Is he alright? Did he make it though the attack?"

"Yeah," she replied, "he's fine. I was just at the safe-house checking up on him. I'm gonna go say hi to Garrus, but then I gotta run. I'm going to try to coordinate the recovery efforts here. It was nice to see you two again. You guys, Jane, Garrus, and any of the old crew are welcome stop by any time. I've got a nice place here and I'd love to see more of you guys. Tell the skip I said hello." With that she gave Tali a final hug and turned to leave for where Garrus knelt over the body of a collector.

...

"So what did we learn?" asked Jane, sitting at her normal place in the _Normandy_'s conference room, at the head of the table. The rest of the ground team plus Doctor Chakwas and Joker sat along its sides in various states of boredom and adrenaline-crash induced narcolepsy.

"Not much, Sis," John replied from the other end of the table, "The collectors took about half the colony for purposes unknown. We have no idea where they're going. We tried to stop them, but..." he trailed off, hanging his head and slowly shaking it back and forth.

"It's alright, Nee. Everyone did their best," his sister replied. "Did you get any intel?"

John looked to Garrus to answer.

"Not much," said the turian, "We don't know where they're going, but I'm still going over the evidence. I forwarded some of the data to a friend in C-Sec criminal investigations. She might be able to give us some answers."

Jane cocked an eyebrow. "Good thinking. Forward all her findings to me. What about the bodies we recovered?"

"Nothing yet," said Doctor Chakwas, "Mordin, Lia, and I are looking at them now, with the help of EDI. Fortunately for us, the professor has some time now that we know his countermeasure works." The salarian perked up and nodded at hearing his name. Lia bounced a few times in her seat, just glad to feel useful.

"Good," said Jane, standing up, "Anything else not in the official report?"

She looked around at the silent participants in the meeting, confronting the blank stares of each one. Her gaze focused on her brother and the man shook his head.

"Alright," she said, "lets get out of here before the Alliance shows up and starts asking questions, like why one of 'their' vessels is unregistered and operating in the Terminus." She started for the door before turning to her executive officer, "When you get a chance, send Ash and her man is some flowers. And a fruit basket. Have the card be from all of us."

"Right, Ma'am," replied the operative, carefully getting to her feet with the rest of the group, "I'll also check to see if the colony has set up a recovery fund. I might be able to get Cerberus to send a donation in our names."

"Good thinking," said the captain, placing an arm around the woman's shoulders and guiding her over to Doctor Chakwas, "Right after our other captain is done with you."

Surprisingly, Miranda nodded without protest. She must have been more beat up than Jane first thought. She watched as Karin put an arm under her shoulders and led her through the door at the back of the room.

As people continued to file out, she noticed Kasumi hanging back. When everyone left, the thief pulled her captain aside.

"Hey Shep, why do you call your brother Nee?" she asked with a curious expression on her face.

"Why do you ask?" she replied.

"Well, what you're saying sounds like _nii_, which means _older brother_ in Japanese."

Jane smiled to herself. The idea that she considered Johnny to be older was laughable. For one, they were twins, but more than that, he'd always been her baby brother as far as she was concerned.

"It's short for Johnny," the Spectre replied, still smiling, "When I was younger I dropped the 'John' part and kept the 'Nee.' It kinda stuck. I try to only use it when we're alone, but sometimes I slip up."

...

Tali had been a nervous wreck since the _Normandy_ had departed Horizon. They had another thirty minutes before they reached Illium and she felt like she would either wear the soles off her boots or the plating off their cabin's deck before they got there. Her fingers weren't doing much better, each one a victim of far too much rapid-fire twiddling.

"So... I'm kind of worried about meeting you mother."

"You've got nothing to worry about, Tals," said John, trying to sound soothing, "I like you and that means she'll like you."

Tali spun him around in his desk chair to face her. She planted herself in his lap and turned them both back around to his terminal. "Riiight..." she said, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms under her breasts, "I'm sure this dinner will go just fine."

"Consider yourself lucky," he said, "I managed to talk her down to a few hours at a restaurant. She wanted to spend the whole day with us."

"That's..." the engineer didn't know what to say. On the one hand, it was great because she definitely did not want to spend more time with Hannah, but on the other, she didn't want to insult John by expressing her happiness at that fact. "That's okay. So what if she hates me?" she asked, "What if she demands that you not see me?"

"Meh. Let her demand all she wants." He pulled down her _realk _and started rubbing her neck, careful not to disrupt the tubes attached to the back of her helmet. "It won't change anything. Would it change anything for you if your father said we couldn't be together?"

"_Der'vak_ no!"

"Good. Then we've got nothing to worry about," he said, "Just get her some flowers when we reach Illium."

...

"Looking forward to dinner?" Jane asked her turian lover.

"Absolutely," replied Garrus. "On a serious note, are we going to bring how the three of us all met before this?"

Jane sat up in bed and crawled her way over to where he sat at its foot. Rubbing his back, she answered, "No, not now. I don't think she remembers and it doesn't matter anyway. It'll just bring up old wounds."

"Right," he replied, holding out a small container and a pencil-sized brush, "Could you?"

"Sure," she said, taking the items.

He pulled her into his lap so she faced him, her legs straddling his hips.

She opened the round metal container and dipped the brush inside. Carefully holding the brush up to his face, she said,"Now hold still, I want to get this just right."

...

Music played throughout the bar, loud but not deafening. Patrons gathered in small groups around tables and in booths, with only the lightest smoky haze filling the air. There weren't so many people that one couldn't walk around comfortably, but there were enough to confirm the establishment's popularity. Everything about Eternity told Hannah that its target demographic was anyone aged twenty-five to thirty-five for most races, and one-hundred fifty to six-hundred for asari and krogan. Just the kind of place she liked.

Walking up to the bar, she waved to bartender and grabbed a handful of snacks. "Aethyta, how are you?"

"Well if it isn't Matriarch Shepard," the much older woman replied, looking up from where she wiped the bar down with a rag, "I'm good. How are you doing? Can I get you something?"

"A glass of Thessia red, if you don't mind," she said, "I'm not too bad, Just meeting the twins here in a bit. I invited Liara along too. I hope you don't mind."

The asari had walked across the bar to a small wine-chiller and produced a bottle. Returning with it, she snatched a pair of crystal glasses and continued, "I don't mind a bit. Any excuse to see my little girl. Didya tell her anything? You know..."

"No, I left that part out," she replied taking the proffered glass, filled with a full-bodied red liquid. She took a sip and nodded, satisfied with the vintage. "It's best that you tell Liara. Maybe tonight, who knows? I also didn't tell Jane about her little surprise."

"You think Liara will mention it?" asked the matriarch.

"I hope so, that's why I invited her along," Hannah smirked, "But you know T'Soni women are... Thinking they can do a fine job of raising their kids without a dad."

"Hah!" bellowed the asari, "Sure they can. Doesn't mean they should. If she tells hers, I might tell mine. Should be an interesting evening." The matriarch downed her glass in one gulp and started to pour another. "I didn't hear the _Kilimanjaro_ was in port."

"It's not," said Hannah, "The _Orizaba_ is. She's my ship now." The woman smiled proudly.

"Well congratulations, Captain. My drink's on you then."

Hannah chuckled. "Pour us both another. Is the room ready?" she asked.

"Not yet," replied Aethyta, "they're cleaning it now. It'll be done by seventeen hundred."

"Oh, excellent," said Hannah, "I think I'll snoop around then, maybe catch up on some Citadel news." The woman got up to leave, intending to find a small cafe where she might read up on current events. She'd heard rumblings from a few Alliance highers that the council was considering a fresh round of sanctions on the Batarians and that humanity might be assigned the task of an embargo.

"Alright then, see ya in a few," said the matriarch, turning to help another customer.

On her way out, Hannah caught sight of a quarian girl and instinctively flinched away, thinking it might have been her son's little tart of a girlfriend, out for revenge. When the alien neither turned to her, nor acknowledged her presence beyond a casual glance at the human, she realized her error and continued walking.

As she passed, Hannah heard the girl complaining to an asari, "You said synthetic insights would buy me..."

The captain froze in her tracks and slowly turned around, the better to face the pair.

"You said it was an easy sale," continued the quarian.

"I assumed they would want-"

"What did you say?" Hannah asked the girl, interrupting the asari and walking up to the pair.

The blue-skinned woman appeared shocked at the human's disruption. "Excuse me madam, I-"

"You're excused, squid-head," said Hannah, pushing her hand in front of the woman's face.

"Child, please tell me again what you just said," she asked the quarian.

The girl looked over Hannah's shoulder to the intractable asari, who gave her no help, only glaring at the older woman, hands at her hips.

"Well, I assumed that synthetic insights would want me," she said, shrugging.

"Want or _buy_?" asked Hanna, her gaze narrowing. She glanced to the asari and then back to the quarian.

"Well, buy, I guess."

Hannah rounded on the well dressed alien, "Explain. _Now_."

"I don't see how it's any of your business," said the woman, folding her arms and looking away, "This conversation is over and the girl and I are leaving."

The asari grabbed the quarian's hand and started for the door, only to be halted by a firm grip on her shoulder. "If it's slavery we're talking about, then it _is_ my business," said Hannah.

Livid at the human's audacity, the asari screamed in her face, "Get your hand off me before I warp you into dust!"

"Oh, really?" she asked in mock surprise, "You're going to murder the mother of the Shepard twins? The captain of the Alliance Dreadnaught docked here? In public?"

The asari seethed, but kept her composure, "Look, lady, it's all perfectly legal. She's an indentured servant, not a slave, and there's nothing you can do about it. Why do you care so much anyway? She's a quarian."

Hannah brought a hand up and slowly clenched it into a fist. The slave trader's eyes went wide and she took a step back. The admiral relaxed her hand and took a breath. She had to remember that every race was different, and some treated racism differently. None of them had the benefits that history had granted humanity. Everyone else was just so damn homogenous.

"Quarian, asari, human, we're all the same," hissed the captain, "and slavery is an abomination to all. I can't in good conscience stand by and let it happen. To anyone. Is she free to leave any time she wants?"

"Of course not, I would make no sense-"

"Then slavery it is," Hannah sighed. She didn't want to make a scene, especially involving something that would put her on the wrong side of the law, but principles weren't of any use if one didn't uphold them. "One of my good friends is an information broker here. One of the best. You don't need to tell me your name or your company's name. I will find you. My children will find you. My marines will find you."

The asari gulped hard and released the quarian's hand.

"One of my best marine lieutenants has a wife." Hannah grabbed the woman by her jacket and pulled her close to her face, her eyes fluttering with anger as she spoke through gritted teeth, "She was returned after five years in batarian-slaver custody, and not in the same condition that she was taken. He will be most eager to meet you."

"It's all true, lady," called Aethyta from the bar, "don't fuck with Matriarch Shepard!"

"Wh- What d- do you want me to do?" asked the slaver.

"Release her. _Now_."

"Alright, alright!" said the asari, her voice erupting as a squeal, "we'll release her from the contract! There's no need for threats."

Hannah let the woman go with a noticeable shove.

The slaver turned to her charge, "Come with me Tara and we'll-"

"No," interrupted the human, holding a finger to the woman's face, almost touching her nose, "The girls stays. You go. Send her the contract, signed for release. You've got twenty-four hours."

"Alright, okay," said the other woman, turning to leave, "just trying to make it easier..." she trailed off, still mumbling to herself as she left the bar.

The elder Shepard turned to the girl, "Tara, is it?" she asked.

"Yes, Ma'am. Thank you, Ma'am." she replied.

"Tara, I don't know what you did to get yourself into this mess, but don't let it ever happen again," the captain said, "Someone might not be around to help."

"Of course, Ma'am," she replied, "I'm sorry to have caused the mess, and to get a captain mixed up in it, no less."

"It's no trouble, child," said Hannah, gesturing to an empty table with an open hand, "Sit with me? I've got some time to kill before my room is ready."

"Yes, Ma'am," Tara replied, taking a seat. The human joined her, followed shortly by a pair of drinks delivered by the bartender. "May I ask you a personal question, Ma'am?"

"You can ask," said the older woman, smiling, "but I reserve the right not to answer."

"Well, okay," the girl said slowly, "Are you really the Shepard twins' mother?"

Hannah chuckled at the low-ball question. She'd have no trouble answering this one. "Of course, child. I take it you've heard of them."

"Yes!" the quarian replied excitedly, "Everyone's heard of Jane and John and Tali and how they saved the Citadel together. It's such a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise," said Hannah.

"I know there were others tracking down Saren," she continued, "but the twins led it, and back on the fleet we all know about Tali."

Hannah nodded as a smile curled at the edges of her lips. It never hurt to dig for intel. Knowing what the little strumpet that was gold-mining her son had been up to for the last two years might be invaluable in convincing him to stay away from her. With any luck, that kind of ammunition might even prove useful over dinner. She had probably been living it up at all the quarian parties, feeding off the fame her son had given her, looking for the next most famous man she could find.

"Do you know all about Tali, then?" she asked, "What's she like?"

Tara cocked her head to the side and considered the question. She couldn't believe an alien would care about the sole quarian on the team that saved the Citadel. Could the rumors be true? On top of everything else she'd accomplished, was the famed daughter of Admiral Zorah actually dating the galaxy's greatest hero? If any quarian woman alive could land that man, she could. But... She was still just a quarian. It couldn't be possible.

Humans _were _a curious bunch, though, so it wouldn't surprise her if one of them was willing to ask questions simply for her own edification. It seemed like the legendary Tali'Zorah was being erased from history, if one only paid attention to the mainstream galactic media. She would be glad to do everything in her power to make sure that didn't happen, even if that meant personally enlightening everyone else, one at a time.

"Well, she's the fiercest warrior on the Fleet," the girl answered, "extremely intelligent. Last I heard, five doctorates. She's a hard-charging, driven, workaholic, even by quarian standards, and that says a lot. Somewhat impulsive, and really, really intimidating. Some people say she's one downright mean _iaysaz_, and that might be true, but... There were some good reasons for that."

Tara thought to herself a moment, wondering how much she should reveal to this woman. She wouldn't want to out a Fleet sister's feelings, _especially_ if they were unrequited, even if it was common knowledge to everyone on the Fleet. Then again, the idea that any woman was pining for John'Shepard should hardly come as a surprise. Even she had shed a tear when she had learned of his, thankfully temporary, demise.

"Tali did do a complete one-eighty conversion," the girl said, "after your son came back."

"Really?" asked Hannah, "What do you mean?"

"Well, I heard she was a nice, bubbly sort of girl before she left for her Pilgrimage," said Tara, looking away, starting to feel a bit uncomfortable.

Hannah must have picked up on it, because she reassured her. "It's okay, child. I know Tali has an interest for my son. I also know he has real feelings for her."

"Oh really?!" she replied excitedly. She couldn't wait to spread that bit of news back on the fleet. "Well then, yeah, I heard she was a pleasure to be around before her Pilgrimage, but after your son was, well, gone, she went into _felz'elt_ real bad, and became a bit of a monster."

"_Felz'elt_?" asked Hannah.

"Oh, right, doesn't translate," she replied, "Real bad depression, when you're mourning someone you're bonded to."

"How bad?" the captain asked, "I mean, how could you tell she was really in mourning?"

Again, Tara cocked her head to the side. This was the mother of John'Shepard, asking about his relationship with a quarian, and wondering if anyone could tell that Tali'Zorah had really mourned his death. Did she doubt the woman's bond? If she did, she probably wasn't the first, and certainly wouldn't be the last. On that matter, Tara could set the record straight.

"Ma'am, your son's death absolutely ruined her. She never left her room except to work," she said almost sternly, "It was a good thing too, because no one ever wanted to be anywhere near her. She screamed and cried into the night so bad that I heard they had to pad the walls of her quarters. At one point, she attacked a crewmate for insulting your son. Woulda killed her too if the constables hadn't intervened."

"It was that debilitating?" Hannah asked before clarifying, "her depression I mean? It sounds like post-traumatic stress disorder."

"For sure. More or less the same thing when a quarian's lifemate dies- Not that I'm sure they were lifemates," Tara hastened to add, "but Tali must have thought so."

"Why didn't the girl just move on?" Hannah asked, "Find someone else?"

The quarian treated the human to a glare so sinister it could peel the paint off a wall-locker. "If Miss Zorah really was bonded, then there's a word for someone who moves on," she said, "In your language, it translates to _whore_."

"I... See..."

"Please, _please_, tell me that you didn't suggest that to her," said Tara.

Guilty, Hannah glanced up from the glass of wine she contemplated then back down. She realized at that moment that she should have paid more attention to her cross-cultural sensitivities classes, or had at least bothered to look up some information on the species with which her son had chosen to pursue a relationship. _Only humans should be expected to act like humans_, she reminded herself. "Maybe there was a miscommunication of sorts," admitted the older woman.

"Wow. You must be some kind of woman, captain Shepard," the girl said, "to call Tali'Zorah vas Neema that and live to talk about it."

In retrospect, Hannah realized that if someone had accused her of being a whore right after Alan had died, she probably would have attacked them then and there. If Garrus had not been present at the reading of the twins' wills, the girl might have done it. Now she could hardly blame her. Suddenly, the two years of Tali's silence made sense, especially if she was in such deep mourning. Hannah should have been the one to send an apology, not the other way around.

That girl had stuck by John through everything the galaxy threw at her, to include vicious combat, the crap her own people were undoubtedly giving her, and Hannah's offer. Even death was no obstacle to the young woman. She had proved her sincerity as far as the captain was concerned. She thought back to her soon-to-be daughter in-law's last message and almost cheered aloud. _Damn right, fuck me! My son is worth a hell of a lot more than some old ships._

"No, child, I'm just an old idiot," she replied, "_Tali'Zorah_ is some kind of woman."

...

The Shepard twins and their dextro companions made their way to Liara's office after docking at Illium. The asari information broker had some news for them about their two newest recruits. Making their way up the stairs to her workplace, they waved to her assistant and walked inside.

"Shepards! Glad to see you." she said smiling, "I have news for you. Are those for Hannah? They're beautiful," she said to Tali.

The young quarian, who had been staring down at the flowers John had picked out and bought for her, looked up at the asari. Her mouth dropped open in a combination of astonishment, envy, and jealousy.

Her former teammate wore a vibrant red dress, so tight it almost certainly chad to be sewn on around her. The material was so thin that every curve and dimple of the woman's body could be seen. If it had been colder in the office, the quarian had little doubt that someone could have gotten an eye poked out. As her eyes roamed over the woman's body, she couldn't help noticing that she was not only a little skinnier than she remembered, but her bust was at least one, maybe two, full sizes larger than it should have been. She would have suspected that her undergarments had augmented her physique, were it not painfully obvious that she wasn't wearing any.

"Ah, yes. Thank you," was all the quarian could say, more than a little jealous. She clutched the bouquet tightly, covering her ostensibly smaller breasts.

"Glad to see you too," said John, "How did everything here go?" He looked just behind the woman to see another red clad asari and a green-skinned alien he assumed to be a drell. "This must be Samara and Thane." He walked over, holding out a hand to the drell first.

"Yes, it is a pleasure to meet you, Commander," said the drell, shaking his hand.

"Likewise."

"And I am the Justicar Samara," said the asari, shaking his hand in turn, "And as part of the bargain I made with Liara, who worked on your behalf, I will now swear my oath to you."

She took a step back and opened her eyes wide, something within her causing them to glow brighter than a masked quarian's ever could. She knelt deeply, her head almost touching the ground. Liara appeared to be in a state of awe while the non-asari in the room seemed nothing more than confused.

Slowly and deliberately she spoke, "By the Code, I will serve you Shepard. Your choices are my choices, your morals are my morals, your wishes are my Code." Finished, she stood up, giving off a brief biotic flare.

"I never thought I'd see that," said Liara.

"If you make me do anything extremely dishonorable," the justicar told him, "I may need to kill you when I am released from my oath."

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that from him," said Jane, giving a toothy smile to the woman.

The older asari gave her a quizzical expression and said nothing.

"Glad to meet you guys," said John to the newest teammates, "We'll brief you aboard the ship tomorrow morning. We're in a bit of a rush right now. Head to the _Normandy_ and get acquainted with her. The ship's executive officer, Miranda, will get you all squared away."

The pair nodded and exited the room, leaving Liara with a surprised quartet of guests.

"How did you get them so quickly?" asked John, "Based on their dossiers, we expected quite a lot of trouble."

"It wasn't hard," said Liara, "For Thane, I just sent cargo transfer officer Seryna a message asking where he was. She told me he was going to assassinate our old friend Nassana Dantius. I paid to have a surveillance drone do fly-bys her office. When I saw all hell broke loose I used the drone to project my holo-image into the room and present your offer. He was very excited to join you. I think he wants to make amends for past deeds."

"I know that feeling," said Jane.

Liara smiled at the woman, bashful and caring at the same time. It looked almost like she wanted to hold her. "As for the justicar, that was even easier," the asari continued, "I made contact with a detective Anaya, someone who'd been dealing with her. I told her that I might be able to get her off her hands. Just yesterday she took the justicar into custody and I was able to speak with both of them over the comm. The justicar wanted information on her target, someone who'd been smuggled off-world by Eclipse. I simply 'acquired' the e-mail log-in and password of captain Wasea, their leader here on Illium. Using that, I was able to get the name of the ship to Samara."

"Wow," said Garrus, "You'd make a damn fine cop. I can't believe you managed all that."

"Without ever leaving my office, no less," said Liara, trying but failing to not sound proud of herself, "I am an information broker, after all, and I'm a damned good one. Ready to head to Eternity? I should have told you earlier, but your mother insisted that I join you. I hope that's alright."

Tali groaned under her breath. The pit that had been forming in her stomach since the end of the Horizon mission came back in full force. Did Hannah ask the asari _bosh'tet_ along so she could steal John away from her? Was that why she had lost weight, gotten a boob job, and dressed like a skank? _Bring it on, _det kazuat_, it didn't work last time, and it sure as human-hell won't work now._

"Oh, that's great," said John, placing a hand on Liara's shoulder to guide her out of the room.

Jane and Tali exchanged glances and made grunting noises before following the pair out of the room. Garrus shrugged and took up the rear.

...

Stepping into Eternity, Tali renewed her unyielding grip on the flowers, as she might grasp at a life-line or a weapon. She walked behind and to the right of John as he chatted to Liara about the newest members of his team. Behind her, Garrus and Jane brought up the rear.

Together the group made their way up to the bar and the matriarch that stood in attendance. At seeing the group approach, she politely moved a few of the patron's drinks aside, making ample access room for Liara and the twins.

"Liara, glad to see you," the bartender said before turning to the female Spectre in the group, "And you must be Jane. I've heard a lot about you." She extended a hand.

The human shook it firmly and smiled. "All not-terrible things, I hope," she said.

The asari winced at the handshake, "Be careful with an old woman, young lady. Now I know where she gets her grip."

"Who gets who's grip?" asked Jane, confusion creasing her brow.

To Tali, it appeared that the asari was taken aback at her captain's question. More telling was Liara; her eyes bulged as she started chewing on her lower lip. She was definitely nervous about something.

"Liara, of course," replied the matriarch with confidence, "she told me you trained her. Hand to hand. Let me show you to your room." She stepped out from behind the bar and led them on with the wave of a hand. "Your mom is already here," she said, palming a door open before the group filed in.

The pit in Tali's stomach seemed to grow and fill in with lead. Liara and John walked in first. As they parted, they left Tali of an unobstructed view of a woman she hadn't seen in two years. The quarian's fingers tightened even harder around the stems of the bouquet, crushing them in a stranglehold.

The older human sat at the far end of a neatly appointed round table made of some light-colored synthetic material. Her only acknowledgement of Tali's presence was a nod and a smile.

The quarian took a seat to John's immediate left, the man separating her from his mother, and Garrus filled in on the engineer's other side. Liara sat on Hannah's right, while Jane sandwiched herself between the asari and her boyfriend.

Shoulders rubbing against John and her favorite turian, it occurred to the lone quarian in the room that table was much too small for six people. Her immediate concerns alternated between the difficulty of escaping if John's mother pulled a weapon and hoping that everyone's orders arrived on plates small enough to fit without much trouble.

While a waitress arrived to take drink orders, she tilted her head and furrowed her brow at that thought. _This table is small? This table would be fit for a formal banquet on the Flotilla. Keelah, John has spoiled me rotten._

"Tali," said John, "do you have something for mom?"

She looked at him with confusion before he inclined his head and eyes to the flowers she held. "Oh. Yes," she spoke softly and hesitantly, "C- Captain Shepard, Ma'am, these are for you." She held the bouquet out for the woman, her hands trembling slightly, made obvious by the amplified movement of the blooms atop long stems.

Hannah cradled the gift with both hands, one above Tali's fist and one below it. When the quarian released her grasp, a few of the flowers fell sideways at odd angles, victims of the engineer's death-grip, their crushed and broken stems now unable to support themselves in Hannah's loose hands.

The quarian retracted her arm slowly and intertwined her fingers on her lap, hanging her head in shame. She wouldn't have minded insulting the woman if she meant to do it, but the idea of giving her an unintentional slight felt terrible, especially when she actually wanted to make peace with her. Getting handed a clump of battered plants certainly wouldn't put Tali in a positive light. _What a great image. Here, take these, I destroyed them so you wouldn't have to. Oh well. Better get my gun ready._

To her surprise, the other woman actually smiled, a genuine one at that, if Tali had to guess. Not only did she seem pleased with the offering, but she went to great lengths to align all the stems together and straighten out some of the bent ones.

"Thank you for the gift, darling, they're lovely," the human said. She signaled their waitress with a hand, pointing at the flowers. The young asari nodded and returned shortly with a crystal vase in hand, water sloshing in its bottom. Hannah placed the flowers inside and used them as a centerpiece for the table.

All three Shepards smiled at the display, Jane going as far as to arrange the flowers in what Tali could only guess was the most eye-catching manner possible.

Garrus leaned into Tali's left audio pick-up, whispering, "I thought you said she was a hateful witch?"

That earned him a hard pinch on his thigh from the quarian, directed at a section of skin between a pair of plates. He took it like a turian and chuckled through the pain.

"And I have this for you," she said to Tali, reaching into a purse so large that, were it not for its elegant construction and decorative metal fittings, could have doubled as a combat-satchel.

In a flash, the quarian moved a hand to one of her many thigh-pockets, thumbed open its clasp and reached inside. Her fingers met the handle of a pistol and wrapped around it. She extracted the weapon, keeping it concealed beneath the table. There was no way for her to get a shot off without endangering John, so she subtly brought a leg to the Spectre's chair, her greave in position to knock the furniture out from under him and send him to the ground if needed. _This is it, girl. Ancestors forgive me, but I think I'm gonna have to send you this _bosh'tet_ of a woman._

Oblivious to her future daughter-in-law's tactical preparations, Hannah produced a data-pad from her purse and held it out for the young woman, smiling.

Tali eyed it suspiciously for a second before returning her weapon to its place of origin.

"Take it darling," the human said, "It's what we talked about. My gift to you."

She reached with a timid hand for the piece of electronics. When she gently took it she was shaking worse than before. _This couldn't be what I think it is, could it? Who is this woman and what did she do with Hannah Shepard?_

She turned it on and opened the only file it contained. John and Garrus looked over her shoulders, trying to sneak a peek.

"What is it?" her _inszel_ asked. He looked between his smiling mother and the string of numbers displayed in the small text file.

"Coordinates." said Jane, having gotten out of her seat to silently join the trio from behind.

"To some salvageable ships," added Tali in a questioning tone.

Jane shrugged and silently returned to her seat, while John and Garrus focused their attention back on the older Shepard.

"Yes," said Hannah, still smiling, "it's as we discussed. This is my wedding present to you and John." She rolled her eyes, "One of them. I'll be sure to get you both something you can actually use, but consider this a start, given in exchange for taking this young man off my hands."

"Just like that?" asked the engineer asked as her _inszel_ patted her on the back.

"Just like that," confirmed Hannah. "Not many people would put up with my boy and his lifestyle."

"Ma'am, thank you," said Tali, still bewildered by the gift and the lack of gun-play. She quickly downloaded the coordinates to her omni-tool and returned the pad. "Not to... to examine the proverbial 'freely-given herd-beast' too closely, but I think that any woman in the galaxy would gladly accept John's lifestyle to be with him. Really, I should be the one giving the gifts, but there aren't enough starships in the entire Fleet to come close to what John means to me."

The Spectre chuckled, slightly embarrassed that his mother and fiancé sounded like they were bartering over the mining rights to a colony world.

"You're right, of course," said Hannah, "but are you so sure about what other women are willing to accept, child?" she asked, her tone skeptical as she wore a knowing smile, "even the part where he died for two years? If you were anyone else- or had listened to my advice when we last met in person- my son would have awoken to a completely different world."

Tali cocked her head to the side while John rubbed her back.

"Imagine it," she continued, "The love of my son's life completely out of the picture, living with some other man. He wakes up and she's worse than just gone; she's moved on to be with someone else."

The young woman winced at the captain's phrasing and the thoughts it conjured. She held tightly onto John's hand, the mere contemplation of the man's discomfort in some strange alternate universe enough to overcome her reticence to speak. "If he was with someone else and she had left him, then it would be for the best," the quarian said without hesitation, "With no one to get in the way, he'd be mine as soon as he woke up."

"Of that I have no doubt," the older woman said. Pulling a tissue from her handbag, she wiped at the corners of her eyes. "You didn't take my suggestion. You mourned him in death. Quite a lot, from what I hear. Then you picked back up right where you left off, as if nothing ever happened. So much changed for my boy, but not you."

Tali sat there stunned, along with everyone else seated at the table. Garrus had no real reference to judge; the man had only ever exchanged pleasantries with Jane's mother. The Shepard twins, on the other hand, had never seen this kind of emotion from the woman, not since just after their father had slipped into a coma.

The engineer could have spoiled the moment by mentioning that any properly bonded quarian would have acted the exact same way as she had. Than again, even another quarian who wasn't strongly bonded, or worse, had just been using John for his body and treated him like a fling, might have left him during his absence.

Noticing their drinks arriving, Jane decided to break the silence, "Well what about Garrus, Mum?" she asked, "He also came right back to me like nothing ever happened."

"Of course, Janie-"

The younger woman interrupted with a snarling noise upon hearing that name.

"-Jane. But you two aren't engaged yet, so, no gift," she said smiling. She turned to Garrus, "If you _can_ get my daughter to settle down, then you'll be worth your weight in the precious metal of your choice."

Liara started to look uncomfortable and within seconds she downed her drink and signaled for another.

"Are you sure you should be doing that?" the elder Shepard asked her, "In your... condition?"

"They're non-alcoholic," replied the asari.

Hannah nodded and ordered a couple of appetizers for the group. No one else had bothered to pick up a menu yet.

Oblivious to Liara's statement, Jane continued, "You know, Mum, maybe it's not me that needs encouragement to settle down-"

"What do you mean by that?" interrupted Garrus as all eyes at the table fell on him.

"What I mean, Skull-Face, is that I haven't heard one thing about marriage from you."

"You want to get married?" he asked quietly in disbelief, "I... I didn't think you wanted that."

"And how would you know what I want?" she replied in a raised voice, "You never asked me. You never even brought up the idea!"

Tali rolled her eyes, glad to have been seated in the private room. In any other situation, the turian and the human might be drawing some attention. She wasn't worried though. It might seem like the pair were fighting, but she figured that they really just liked yelling at each other. At every step in their relationship, they had had outbursts similar to this one. They would go back and forth, each wanting the exact same thing that the other wanted, but each too fired up to realize it. Then, when they would both finally figure out what was going on, they celebrated with noisy, heated sex. She hoped the food arrived before they got to that point. _Lucky _bosh'tets._ Both of them._

"Well neither did you!" Garrus roared, "I thought after our last fight that it was a given that I wanted to get married at some point!"

"Well you-!" Jane blinked, processing what she just heard, "You... You want to marry me?"

"Well, yeah, why wouldn't-"

She silenced him with a kiss. Small and close-lipped at first, it grew more passionate within seconds. Garrus leaned in and held her tight, but he misjudged the narrowness of the chairs. In a spectacular crash of bodies and furniture, the both ended up on the ground together, limbs intertwined, though they seemed to neither notice nor care what had happened.

Tali rubbed her visor and chuckled. It seemed her initial hope for a meal without perversion had been dashed. the waitress was certainly in for a show.

"Garrus will you get off her?!" hissed Liara. "This is neither the time nor the place."

"Right, sorry," he said, pulling away from the red-head, strands of her hair clinging to his mandibles before falling away. As he stood up, Jane's hand lingered on his body, around his fringe, moving down his chest. He took it and pulled her up with him, the pair righting their seats and sitting down. The turian noticed some of his blue paint, not quite dry, had made its way onto Jane's cheekbones in the exchange. "It looks good on you," he said, pointing to the marks.

Taking it as a compliment, Jane smiled and elected not to wipe it off. She reached to pat Liara's thigh as an apology for riling her up with the display of affection, but as she made contact with the woman, she found her hand squeezed in Liara's. She turned to her in confusion.

"Engagements, ships, everything but eating," said asari, "well, I have an announcement too. Hannah invited me along for a reason." She turned to the other woman. The captain nodded and the asari held Jane's hand even tighter, looking the female Spectre in the eyes. "I was going to tell you earlier, but we ran out of time and the moment didn't seem right. You deserve to know, and now you do too, Garrus."

"Know what?" he asked.

"To know what you're in for if you marry Jane," she replied, suddenly wishing to avoid eye-contact, "I mean, I guess it's what you're in for. It's up to Jane how much she wants to involve herself," the woman sighed, "Sorry, this is really hard for me, especially with all that's happened and-"

"Spit it out, Liara," demanded the female Spectre.

"I- I, well, um..." she closed her eyes tight and tried to get the words out.

"I'm a grandmother," said Hannah.

John and Garrus gasped. Jane almost choked on her drink, coughing up drops of two-hundred-dollar a bottle tequila. Tali kicked John's shin out of instinct.

"Sorry," she mumbled to the man. After a moment's thought, she added, "It's not yours, is it?"

"No!" he hissed in her ear.

"Right. Sorry," she whispered back, rubbing his upper arm in apology.

"You're... What?" asked Jane, wiping her chin.

"A grandmother," she said, smiling broadly, "and you're a father. My daughter is a father. Never thought I'd say those words," she said aloud to herself, "She's a gorgeous baby girl, over a year old now. I expect you to be there for her."

Suddenly it all made sense to Tali. If Liara had been pregnant with Jane's child when she died, of course she would have reached out to Hannah. She would have wanted the woman involved, if not to help care for the child, at least to tell her what her father had been like. Liara's mother was dead, she had no idea who her father was, had no sisters as far as anybody knew, what other family would Jane's daughter have left to her? What other family did Hannah have left after the twins had died? No wonder they were so close.

More importantly, with the twins passed away, that girl would have been the only grandchild Hannah could ever have. She was her only living link to the twins and the Shepard legacy.

Garrus had a strange look about him. The only expressions Tali could ever read were human, and in theory, quarian, so the turian remained as enigmatic as ever to her. She hoped he was okay with all this. If he ended it with Jane over her having a child, something that should be a blessing, she would personally break both his arms.

"I... Of course I'll be there," was all Jane could say, "Of course I'll be there for my daughter. What's her name? Where is she? Can I see my baby?!"

"Liara?" asked Hannah, turning to the asari. Tears in her eyes, the information broker nodded. Hannah brought up her omni-tool. "Aethyta, can you bring little Janie over?"

Jane ripped her hand from the asari's grasp and held Garrus by both shoulders, "Her name is Jane!" she squealed in excitement.

"_Absolutely. I was beginning to miss the little tyke_," said the matriarch through the comm.

"Her full name is Jane Shepard T'Soni," Liara said, blinking the moisture from her eyes, "I... I call her Junior for short."

Garrus felt a two hands on his thighs, a quarian one on his right, a human one on his left. Looking between the two women, he surmised what was at issue.

"I think it's great," he said, sounding like he meant it, "I mean, I love kids. I- I want to help you raise her, Jane," he glanced at the asari, "Liara? If that's okay with you guys."

"Liara?" Jane echoed the question, appearing slightly unsure of herself, "I'm not going to have to sue for custody or anything am I?" The woman's smile let everyone know she was just joking, but her eyes said the opposite. She would sue, and more, if she had to. One did not try to keep the Butcher of Torfan's daughter away from her.

"Please, Jane," said the asari, looking simultaneously shocked and hurt by what amounted to an insult, "I would never keep her from you! And by extension, you either, Garrus. I show Junior holos and vids of you all the time. I tell her stories about you every night. She even has a human baby-doll with red hair and plush N7 armor that she calls Daddy. That was her first word, by the way. Her- Her first sentence- It was 'Where Daddy?"

Jane brought a hand to cover her mouth and muffle the sobs that escaped. She slumped her head against Garrus' armor, burying her face in his chest as the turian wrapped his arms around her. Although fairly emotional herself, at times, Tali knew damn well that she could have been born with a heart of stone and still felt moved by the tableau playing out in front of her. She held onto John tightly and lay her head on his shoulder, blinking furiously to clear a few stray tears from her eyes.

The door to the room opened and the bartender walked in, escorting a cheerful asari toddler. Bright green eyes surveyed the world around her. This was a place she had never been before with people she'd never met before. Focusing on the nearest new-person she recognized, she proceeded to throw caution, and the much older asari's guiding hand, to the wind and waddle over to the old human's open arms.

"Gram-Gram!" she yelled.

"Come here my little Janie," said the woman, scooping her up into her arms.

Oblivious to her mother and grandmother fussing over her, straightening her skirt, adjusting her shoes, and pulling her shirt down over her tummy, the child stared intently, mouth agape, at the red-headed woman seated on the other side of her mother. Jane stared back, just as intently, into the child's big green eyes that were so full of wonder. Seconds passed and the Spectre said nothing, not knowing where to begin and not wanting to break the girl's concentration.

Finally, the toddler raised a hand and pointed a finger right at her. "Daddy."

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	13. I Don't Want To Miss A Thing

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Chapter 13: I Don't Want To Miss A Thing

"Daddy."

Jane smiled through her tears and fought against the lump in her throat to give a small yelp of happiness. She held out her arms to the child and waved her into an embrace.

The little girl gave a wide smile that dimpled her cheeks and lit her eyes, happy to have correctly guessed the name of the red-headed woman she had singled out. Rather than climb down from her grandmother and walk around her mother to get to her pale-skinned father, she elected to climb right across the Liara's lap on her way to Jane. Once in the Spectre's arms, she slumped down into her lap and began energetically playing with her hair.

"Soft," she said, "Daddy. Soft."

Jane stroked the child's cartilaginous tendrils, far too engrossed in her daughter to pay much attention to the world around her. Little Janie felt much the same way.

Tali spoke up, "She seems very advanced for her age. Do asari normally start talking so early?"

"It's not unheard of," admitted Liara, "but Junior is very precocious for her age."

"She has your eyes," Garrus said to Jane, remarking on the girl's emerald stare.

Hearing the distinct sound's of a turian's dual voice-box, Junior turned to the man and reached for a mandible. He inclined his head lower to her, placing the uninjured side of his face within reach.

She ran a finger along it, further smearing his dark-blue paint as she explored. Eventually, she wrapped her tiny hand around it completely and tugged. Garrus made a funny squawk and she chuckled. She tugged again and he rewarded her with another squawk. She and he went back and forth like that another half-a-dozen times in rapid succession, sending the little girl into fits of laughter. She capped it off by picking her nose and, in the process, wiping his blue paint across her mouth and cheeks. Slightly darker than her skin-tone, the color gave her the appearance of having an odd birthmark.

Seeing her reach for his mouth again, Jane hastened to pull her hand back and draw her attention elsewhere. Garrus was being such a darling, playing with her like that, but he probably would not have appreciated having a small child's snot coating the inside of his mandibles, even if he would have allowed it.

The Spectre glanced around the room, trying to come up with ways to entertain the little girl. It started to dawn on her that she had absolutely no experience with children whatsoever. She wanted to do what came naturally and simply play with the Junior, but there had to be more to it than that. Books had been written on the subject for generations, after all. She couldn't see any toys or other distractions that the matriarch may have brought with her. She finally came up with a serviceable idea. She drew her pistol from a hidden waistband holster.

"What are you doing?" asked Liara.

"What?" replied Jane, unloading the weapon, "Just giving her something to play with."

"Goddess, Jane, you're kidding, right?" The asari looked shocked, an expression echoed by the child's grandmother.

John and Garrus both smiled, while Tali hid her face, her expression naturally unreadable.

"No," the Spectre said, "I'm not. It's harmless. I unloaded it." She placed the weapon in the girl's hands and was pleased and amazed to find the child holding it correctly despite barely being able to wrap her hand half-way around the grip. "Look, she's a natural." Jane cooed.

"Jane Carenza Shepard! Get that out of my granddaughter's hands, now," Hannah demanded, reaching for the weapon.

The child pulled away from the woman, while her mother seethed in anger.

"Relax, Captain," said Aethyta as she walked up behind the younger human, "Janie might be a natural, but I'm the one who taught her how to hold a pistol like that."

Hannah rolled her eyes and retracted her arm while Liara's head shot up, "Matriarch?" she asked in disbelief, "You've been letting my daughter play with guns? What right do you have?"

The older asari turned to eldest Shepard, "Hannah? You've been doling out all the surprises today. Wouldn't want to screw up your record."

All eyes at the table, save for Jane's and Junior's, turned to the smirking woman. "Well, Liara, the Matriarch is Janie's grandfather."

"Wha- What?" stammered the twins, almost in unison.

"M-Mom?" John managed to sputtered alone.

Liara looked a bit confused, but smiled nonetheless, "Well, congratulations Hannah, Matriarch, I didn't realize you two were-"

"Our kids are idiots," interrupted Aethyta, talking to Hannah.

"Quite," she agreed, turning to the information broker, "Liara, the Matriarch is your father, not my wife."

"Daddy?" Liara managed to say.

"Daddy!" echoed Janie, tugging on her Jane's long red hair.

"Yeah, little wing, I'm your dad," she said, walking over to the woman and placing a hand on her shoulder, "I guess we should catch up. I've got to get back to the bar, but I get off at twenty-two hundred. Meet at your place?" she asked.

Liara grabbed the woman's arm and pulled her down into a sidelong embrace, "Yes, that would be wonderful, Dad." She seemed to take the revelation in stride, although that could have been a false impression given by the woman's normally impassive personality. No doubt she was still trying to process it, if nothing else. It might not fully hit her until later.

"Alright, see you then," the older asari said, gently rubbing the other woman's head before walking out of the room. At the same time, their waitress entered and set down a pair of appetizer trays.

The information broker returned her attention to her daughter as the youngster acted out shooting at the walls and windows of the room. She snatched the firearm out of Janie's hand, at which point the girl broke into a crying fit.

"Look what you did, Liara," scolded Jane. She picked up a morsel of levo food and tried to feed it to the girl, only to have her mother take that away too. "Really?" she asked in disbelief.

"Babies can't have chicken wings, Jane," replied Liara, rolling her eyes, "And I don't care what Matriarch Aethyta- Dad- thinks. No guns."

Jane rocked the girl as she had seen others do in holo-vids and made shushing noises, trying to bring her daughter's crying to a halt. "Why not?" she protested, "It's harmless if it's unloaded, and better she learns now."

"They're dangerous, and it's better if she doesn't learn ever," replied the asari, munching on the pilfered wing.

Jane felt taken aback. "First off, knowledge is the best way to keep kids safe around guns. I know damn well-"

"Language!" hissed Liara.

"_Darn_ well that you keep guns in your place, and so do I, and so does Garrus," she said, patting her boyfriend's thigh, "and secondly, why shouldn't she learn to use them? Do you not like what I do for a living?"

That brought Liara's thought processes to a halt. "Well, it's not that," she said slowly, "It's just that... I don't know. I don't like it, is all. And I also don't want to pressure her into being a commando or anything."

"Okay, well, Garrus and I'll teach her about firearms when I'm around, and you can teach her about archaeology, and we'll let her decide," Jane said in her best attempt at compromising on any issue to date.

Garrus rubbed his brow and patted the crying child's back, clearly sympathizing with Janie after his girlfriend lumped him in with her decision to teach a toddler how to use firearms.

"Not until she's at least thirty," pleaded Liara, "and that's being generous."

Jane was about to respond, her face having contorted into her famous 'what are you going to do about it' glare, but John interrupted the pair. "We're here for another couple of days," he said, holding up both hands and smiling, "We're going to handle something for our XO and there was something else you wanted to discuss with us, Liara. Plenty of time to address the parenting issues. For now, let's try to calm Junior down."

"Yes," agreed Hannah, "This is the only time I'll get to spend with my family for a while, so lets enjoy it, please."

"Alright, well, hand me Junior," Liara said with a sigh, grabbing the girl under her armpits and hoisting her off Jane. "I think she might be hungry."

"Well, I tried to give her one of my wings," retorted the human.

"And that's why I'm the mother and you're the father," said Liara, placing the child into her lap and lowering one of her red dress' shoulder straps, raising a few eyebrows.

"What are you doing?" asked the Spectre, catching the surprised glances of everyone else at the table, save for her mother who just smiled placidly, "Isn't she, like, a year old?"

"Yes," replied Liara. She pulled the neckline of her tailored dress down while lifting out one of her cumbersome bosoms, much larger than Jane remembered from their night together, and turned the child toward it. Janie's crying ceased almost immediately as she gratefully latched onto her mother.

Jane bit her lip at the display, feeling oddly jealous, of both Liara and Garrus, at her one-time partner's carefree exposure in front of her boyfriend. _  
_

"We're asari, Jane," explained the mother of her child, "We don't develop or mature as fast as most races do. She'll stay like this until she's five, at least. She won't be ready for primary school until she's fifteen, and won't see secondary school until she's around thirty. It's unlikely that she'll graduate from university in your lifetime."

"I..." Jane didn't know what to say to that. Leave it to Liara to dampen the mood. "Oh," she managed, downcast at the thought.

"Well, I mean, you could live another hundred years," the information broker admitted softly and awkwardly, perhaps sensing that she'd yet again said something stupid, "Advances in anti-aging and the like..." she trailed off to the sounds of the patient sucking at her chest.

Wanting to ease the tension, John spoke up. "I like that she has Jane's eyes."

"Yes, they're incredibly beautiful," Liara agreed, "But it's coincidence. It doesn't work that way."

John and Tali both rolled their eyes at the woman. Garrus' subharonics rumbled disapproval, something Jane felt as much as heard. Jane simply scowled, all too familiar with Liara's brand of heedless honesty to really get upset by it.

"I know a Shepard woman when I see one," interjected Hannah, "and she is definitely Shepard woman. You can't tell me that all asari are as curious, intelligent, and recklessly outgoing as Janie is."

"Well, Tethysia's daughter is a lot like that," Liara said defensively.

"The woman who hired you to track down her locket for you?" asked Hannah, sporting her all too familiar knowing smile.

"Yes, the same," said Liara warily, before carefully lowering her dress down beneath her other breast and switching Janie over with as little disruption to the girl's feeding as possible.

"Her father's human," said Hannah in a tone she reserved for the final moments of a chess game.

"Well that doesn't-"

"Your father agrees with me, young lady," interrupted the older captain, shaking her finger. That seemed to silence the other woman.

Defeated by persistence, Liara gave up and conceded the argument for the time being. "At some point, Matriarch Shepard, I'd like to talk with you about how long you've been keeping that from me," said Liara, "Knowing that she's my dad, I mean."

"Oh, we'll talk," she replied, noticing the waitress coming back into the room, "But later. I think it's about time we ordered."

...

They had continued dining for another few hours, eventually passing Janie off to Aethyta when the girl had finished nursing and could no longer stay awake.

"This was a wonderful, enlightening, dinner," said Hannah, "So what do you all have planned for later?"

"Well, after this, I think Tali and I are going to retire for the night," replied John, "We've got to debrief our new recruits tomorrow morning and after that I'm going to handle something for our XO here on Illium."

"Liara and I are getting together to discuss some business," said Jane, "figure some things out, and maybe I'll be taking some direct action over the next couple of days. Who knows. It's a good way to pass the time while we're stuck in port."

Garrus raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Well, if you and Liara are going to be _that kind_ of busy," said Hannah, "What are you going to do with Janie? Aethyta has to work. I'd watch her, but we're leaving first thing in the morning."

Liara's expression changed to an uncertain smile, "Well I was going to ask my assistant..."

Jane turned to her comrades. "Kelly?" she asked.

"Kelly," agreed John and Tali at the same time.

"Definitely Kelly," said Garrus.

"Who's Kelly?" asked Liara.

"Our ship's psychologist," said Jane, "I won't let her near me, but she's a fantastic person. A real sweetheart. Loves everything. Great with kids," she shrugged, "Probably."

"Probably?" the asari questioned again, "Maybe Nyxeris wouldn't mind."

"She'll be fine, Liara," said John, "Better than fine. I couldn't think of a better babysitter than Kelly. I'm sure she'll take her to a park or something and spoil her with all kinds of nonviolent toys. And you and the Matriarch are welcome to stay aboard while we're in port."

"Alright, Johnny, if you say so," replied Liara, still a little hesitant.

"Trust me, Junior will be in great hands," he said. "I guess all this means you won't be coming with us this time around either."

"No," said Liara, "I'd love to, by the goddess I'd love to be there with you and Jane again, but it's too dangerous for Junior and you know I can't leave her."

"Damn right, you can't," agreed Jane, her boisterousness tempered with a hint of sadness, "One of us needs to be there for my daughter and not out getting herself shot at. Whatever plan we come up with tomorrow to deal with your issue isn't going to involve you if we can help it. Clear?"

"Like crystal, Jane," replied the asari, smiling broadly.

...

"How are you doing, babe?" asked Ashley, kneeling next to her husband's wheelchair.

"Nnn... Not... Baaad," he replied.

"The meds doing it for ya?" she asked with a smile, "You got the good stuff, I know it."

Slowly, a weak but genuine smile crossed his lips. She took his hands in hers and kissed him gently on his lower lip.

"What do you want for dinner?" she asked.

His eyes glazed over and he gave no response. That was typical. A few words each day were all he could muster before zoning out for another twenty hours or so.

"Pasta sound good to you?" she asked, still smiling. She stood up and started off for the kitchen.

Again, he gave no indication of understanding. That didn't matter to operations chief. As catatonic as he seemed at times, she knew he could hear her in there and that her voice helped. If she stayed quiet, it would get awfully lonely for both of them.

"Yeah. You like pasta." She started pulling out a pot and filling it with water. "Oh, Commander Shepard stopped by yesterday. During the attack. I told you the twins were alive."

"Oooh..." he mumbled from the living room.

That got her attention. She poked her head in from the kitchen and was pleased to see that his normally slack expression spread into a smile, broader than a moment ago. Getting to see that twice in one day didn't happen often, and it warmed her heart, giving her hope that he was finally starting to heal. She would remember to thank the lord in their prayers tonight. God had been looking out for them both for a very long time. She knew that one day their faith would pay off and he'd help her husband to recover fully.

She walked in and wiped the accumulated drool off his lips and chin with a napkin, leaning in close to him as she did. "Would you like me to bring them by next time they're in the system?"

He nodded slowly, opening his mouth to try and speak, "Nnn..."

Ashley frowned at the mixed message. "You want them to come by?"

He nodded again, then stopped and slowly shook his head side to side. "Medsss..."

"But not like this. Not medicated," she ventured.

He slowly nodded for a third time, his eyes widening almost imperceptibly to let his wife know that she had finally understood.

She kneeled down in front of him, reaching up to run her fingers through his beautiful brown hair. "I don't think that's a good idea, babe," she said softly. The idea of denying him a moment's clarity, of keeping him a prisoner of his own body, tore her up inside. She also knew that without his meds, the pain would drive him insane. "You know how awfully your head will hurt."

He slowly shook his head, clearly using every last ounce of strength he had remaining just to stay coherent long enough to complete the gesture. His eyes misted over and a pair of tears fell down his cheeks.

Seeing so much emotion out of him, so much fear and sadness from her husband, cut her to the core. There was no possible way she could say no to that. "It's okay, It's okay," she quickly reassured him, planting kisses all over his face and starting to cry herself, "We'll do it your way. We can start by weaning you off your meds slowly, okay? Is that good?"

He completed half a nod before staring out into space. Whatever he was thinking about, She hoped it was something good.

Ashley stood again and wiped both their tears off his face, careful to avoid the spots that she had just kissed. She wanted him to remember that feeling as long as possible, wherever he was. After walking back into the kitchen, she pulled out a box of pasta and emptied it into the pot of now boiling water. "So. Pasta, huh?" she asked, "How about broccoli with cheese sauce to go with that?"

...

Tali's heart felt like it would beat out of her chest. Her suit worked overtime to wick away and collect the cold sweat that gathered in her armpits, under her breasts, and on her palms. Her breathing came heavily and rapidly. John would finish getting cleaned up in the bathroom within moments, undoubtedly joining her on their bed shortly thereafter. Normally, she would already be feeling horny with anticipation. It would have been the perfect way to end the day and ensure a great night's sleep. This time was different. She wanted to flee out of their front door without once looking back, blaring out excuses as she ran, and hiding away in engineering until morning. Instead she tried to shut her mind down and stare at their cabin's carpeted floor.

She felt more nervous now than she had ever been before, more so than just before her first contact with the geth, when her hands had been shaking so badly that she could barely type into her omni-tool. The actual combat that followed had been different. There was never any time for fear or worry; only taking in stimuli, strained through tunnel vision, and acting or reacting accordingly. The waiting had been the worst part.

In short order, that kind of reaction had faded. She had fought well enough to live and do it again. The fear had become tempered and manageable, the adrenaline a welcome and expected prelude to a job well done. By the time she had her encounter outside Chora's Den, she was already well-hardened against the worst that she felt the galaxy could offer. Those poor, dead, _bosh'tet_ thugs hadn't even managed to raise her pulse by more than a dozen beats-per-minute. The young woman had become convinced that she'd have to take up extreme EVA sports or shuttle drag racing to ever feel that kind of rush again.

That was until she had her first date with John'Shepard. Between meeting the man and being asked out, she had consistently disregarded her own feelings, not even bothering to consider that there might ever be anything between them. When he had actually asked her to dinner, despite having eaten with him almost every night prior aboard _Normandy_, everything had changed. The wait between lunch that day and their date that night had been the cause of more anxiety than she'd ever felt up to that point in her life. She had even developed several alternative courses of action, one of which included faking her own death and then hitchhiking back to the Citadel in the event that she _really_ made an embarrassment of herself.

Things had changed a few days later when John had finally become bold enough to kiss her on the visor and she reacted by grabbing his butt with both hands and thrusting his hips into her. They pretty much figured out where they stood with each other after that.

Sitting on their bed, rapidly twiddling her fingers, she saw the bathroom door open through John's model case. He stepped out wearing nothing more than a towel and a smile. By the time he reached the stairs, one of the two had disappeared. She only noticed when she glanced up at his approach, returning her vision to the ground an instant later. She was far too distracted with worry to take in the enticing view.

It felt almost the same as when she had waited for that first dinner date, but twice as bad and concentrated into one hundredth of the time. Rejection then had almost been expected, and while painful, it wouldn't have been debilitating. This time around, there was no escape plan, no way to turn back. She realized that she held more fear of disappointing her human than she did of dying. That didn't say much of course; professional soldiers all accepted death on some level, but still...

He drew next to her, taking a seat beside her on the bed, smiling and rubbing her thigh. No matter how much her thoughts preoccupied her, nothing could keep her body from responding to the man's touch. She sighed and brought her eyes to meet his.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

She took in his worried appearance and his unsure half-smile. The engineer had to do something. She did _not_ want to ruin this special, terrifying, moment.

"Yes," she squeaked, "Everything is fine." She held both of his hands in hers and started playing with his fingers. Too late, she realized that doing that was one of her biggest tells. With him, the action had become her default response to any negative stress in their relationship. He figured it out at about the same time she did.

"No," he said slowly, shaking his head, "No, it isn't."

She looked up into his eyes again. Seeing his warm smile washed all but a feeling of general contentment away from her, leaving her concerns to languish in the back of her mind. She still noticed the faint traces sadness percolating through his expression and it made her cringe. Her reluctance was upsetting him and she hated herself for it.

"Just- a little- not much at all really-" she took a few deep breaths, steadying her nerves, "Scared. I'm scared." She lowered her head again and picked out a few of the veritable bouquet of digits she had seized onto and started stroking them intently, rubbing their delicate joints between her thumbs and forefingers.

"It's okay, Tali," he said, broadening his still-sad smile, "We don't have to do this now. Maybe later when you feel-"

"No!" she interrupted him, louder than she intended, grabbing onto his hands, "No. I have to do this. I mean I _have_ to." Her expression was fixed, firm but pleading. Her eyes, at least, could convey her sincerity to the man. He nodded with understanding.

"If I don't do it now, it's not going to make it any easier later," she continued, "so I might as well get this done." She sighed loud enough for her vocalizer to telegraph the noise. "If you decide to leave me after this, its better now than after going through with the wedding," she said, forcing a very strained laugh.

John chuckled humorlessly, his awkward smile coming across as pained. He looked over her visor for a few seconds, as if trying to see inside, during which his face became gravely serious. "I am _not_ leaving you, no matter what you look like. Period. Understand?"

She nodded slowly, staring into his blue eyes.

An smirk crept over his face, "Besides, if I don't like it, you can just put your helmet back on."

She punched him in the shoulder. "_Bosh'tet_." Strangely, his comment made her feel a lot better. He had fallen in love with her, she had to believe that, and it had happened while she wore her damn mask. In a worst-case scenario she'd have to keep it on for the rest of her life, something she had intended on doing anyway until John had come back to her. At least this time he'd be by her side, even if he couldn't stand to look at her.

She sighed again, "Just remember-"

"I know, I know," he said, holding up hand to mollify her, "Ugliest girl in the galaxy, I got it. You remember what I said."

"I know," she gave him a resigned smile, "You still love me."

All of her thoughts and worries left her mind. It was show time. The real deal. She forced herself to operate mechanically and disconnected from the world around her, like the first time she pulled a trigger in combat. She didn't think. She just allowed her body to do it.

Looking at him one last time before the inevitable, she took his hands, still in hers, and traced them up the front of her chest, past her neck, and let them rest on the sides of her visor. The human's hands had hesitated when they passed over her breasts, causing her eyes to roll. Again, she felt surprised that the man's action seemed to calm her, as crude as it was, serving as a reminder that she still had some assets to offer him even if her face left something to be desired.

Gently guiding his fingers to a series of emergency-release clasps, she used them to orchestrate an intricate dance at the seems of her visor and took a deep breath. When the last button was pushed, a small hiss escaped into the room, rustling the hairs on her human's hand. He breathed deeply through his nose, smelling the air and smiling. That was a good sign, at least.

Quickly, she took the visor from his hands while it still partially obscured her face, and leaned away from him to place it on their nightstand. Allowing him that brief look before turning away had been calculated to give him a moment's contemplation before anything else happened. Turning away would shield her from his initial reaction, in the likely event that it was one of disgust.

Her chest heaved in anticipation of the moment that she had simultaneously been dreading and hoping for since she had first thought of John as more than a friend. It was, probably, too late to slam her visor back on and run out of the room in shame.

After a few seconds of needlessly adjusting the visor on the bedside table, she slowly turned back to him, meeting his eyes. His expression was one she couldn't readily identify. His eyes were wide as they traversed her face, his mouth slightly agape. She noticed his breaths coming in rapid, uneven succession. His hands trembled violently, causing her to stifle a moan of pity for what she had inflicted on her unfortunate human.

She could tell he was afraid. He smelled like it, but, as repulsive as her appearance might have been to him, she hadn't actually expected to terrify the man. Not only that, but he looked genuinely shocked. Of course she hadn't seen him like that before. Nothing ever surprised or scared the Spectre. If seeing an alien dreadnaught floating above a city while demented bug-creatures stole its populace couldn't faze the man, then nothing could. Except for perhaps discovering that his fiancé was an ugly freak. She _had_ warned him to be prepared, hadn't she?

Blinking a few times to clear her shimmering eyes of their growing moisture, she turned away from his blank, leering stare to reach across the bed for her visor.

...

John inwardly groaned. Maybe he'd overdone it with the 'putting the helmet back on' comment. Here was Tali, about to take her visor off and metaphorically bare her soul, and he'd cracked a tasteless joke about it. She didn't seem to mind as much as he'd thought, though, and it appeared to put her a little more at ease. Her shoulders and posture changed perceptibly, clearly releasing some of her pent-up tension.

He felt unsure of how to respond in this situation. He tried to get a handle on its seriousness, to understand what this meant to her, or at the very least, to look like that's what he was doing. That was made all the more difficult by the fact that, beyond alleviating the intense curiosity he felt over the appearance of the girl he'd fallen in love with, seeing her face didn't really matter that much to him. He loved her and would marry her no matter what she looked like and absolutely nothing could change that.

His fiancé sighed again, for what felt like the third time in as many minutes. She gave him a resigned look. "Just remember-"

"I know, I know," he said, holding up hand to forestall her self deprecation, "Ugliest girl in the galaxy, I got it. You remember what I said."

"I know," she said, trying to smile but only reflecting sadness through her obscured eyes, "You still love me."

She brought his hands up from where she held them against her lap and traced them along her shapely torso, up over her perky chest and along her graceful neck. John couldn't help but linger over her breasts, the action came as an instinct, and the quarian didn't seem to mind. John smirked to himself; by now she must have expected no less.

Using her fingers to blanket his, she guided his digits in pressing a careful sequence of release buttons along the edge of her mask. He memorized their exact location and order by touch alone, burning the sensation into his psyche. He would never forget it as long as he could help it.

Feeling her movements slow in anticipation, he held his breath as he waited for the short progression to end. At the last possible instant, a thought occurred to him and he let all the air escape his lungs. His heart leapt at that familiar hiss, the sound that had so mesmerized him once before. Breathing deeply, he smelled the warm air he felt escaping over his fingers and hands. It was perfumed with a slightly heady sweetness, an unsubtle combination of fragrances that he found absolutely intoxicating. He closed is eyes and enjoyed as much of it as he could before it dissipated.

When he finished, he expected to see the face of his fiancé staring back at him. Instead, he found her leaning away from him and playing with her visor on his nightstand, all but the very edge of her face hidden from view.

John frowned, then made his expression neutral. It wouldn't do to have her see that when she turned back around. He could tell from seeing a bit of her lower jaw and cheek that her skin was exactly as described, although more attractive than he had anticipated. It had a pale pastel-blue tone, tinged with violet, and a complexion so smooth and uniform that it would make a human supermodel jealous. It might have been make-up, but he doubted that her helmet, designed to hide her features, would have any such cosmetic functions.

As he appraised what little he could see of her, he debated reaching out for her and turning her to face him. She might like that kind of assertiveness. Most women responded to that kind of thing. He shook his head at the thought. Why was he second guessing his instincts with her? This was Tali. He knew what to do around her. He needed to wait until she was ready. Anything else would just anger or embarrass her.

Slowly, she turned to face him, the light from her eyes intensifying as her pupils angled in his direction. Fully exposed to him, her face passed within a dozen centimeters of his before stopping and waiting.

All John could do was stare in awe at the woman in front of him. He had not expected this. His jaw slackened and his eyes grew in wonderment. To say he was shocked was a complete understatement. She caught him like a deer in the headlights, an apt analogy given the luminescent orbs that transfixed him, denying him the ability to tear away for even a second.

The glimpse of skin he saw moments ago had been a farce, a evil lie that his own eyes had perpetrated upon him. To compare her to a human model was a hateful disgrace and, were he able to think at all, he would have mentally cursed himself for the association. No human he had ever seen, in person or otherwise, could compare to what he saw before him. His initial assessment of her skin-tone had been accurate, to be sure, but there was so much more. Not a follicle or pore could be seen. She had no blemishes or pitting whatsoever. Her skin shamed the silk sheets underneath them in terms of smoothness and elegance.

She had a pair of slim and alluring black lines on her forehead, arching off of the inner edges of her dark eyebrows, the same shade as tresses at the edge of her remaining helmet. The lines were slightly recessed into her skin, and did nothing but enhance her super-human beauty. He wondered if these were the _faysakt_ that Lia had mentioned, before that thought too was submerged under the weight of her demanding presence.

Tali's nose was small and perky, matching her chin almost perfectly. They were features more elegant than almost any human woman or asari could have, no matter how much money they threw at cosmetic surgeons. Her cheekbones sat high on her face, slightly pronounced, as a human of Mediterranean or Native American descent might have.

He noticed her freckles for the first time. Small polygonal spots running across the bridge of her nose and over those cheekbones, just slightly darker than the rest of her skin, the straight edges of each one lining up with the edges of its neighbor. They were no more than a millimeter wide on her nose, but became gradually larger as they spread across the tops of her cheeks.

Everything he saw gave John the overall impression of unreality. It was like she hadn't been born so much as crafted. He suddenly remembered to breathe, his dizziness prompting him to finally exhale. He managed a few short, stuttering breaths before forgetting what he was supposed to be doing and starting the process all over again.

He felt too terrified to move. Girls this beautiful were supposed to associate with him. They weren't supposed to be anywhere near him, let alone sitting on his bedside. They were supposed to laugh at his shy and cowardly advances and tell him to get lost before turning back to their friends in distaste.

The quirky, nervous, easily flustered girl he knew as Tali was gone, replaced by this unearthly goddess. No longer was she the easily approachable friend and lover he'd come to adore, with whom he could confidently associate, free of doubt and worry. She was now a woman whose very presence forced him to scrutinize his every action, a terribly unfair predicament considering that he couldn't muster the necessary brainpower to respire, let alone figure out what to do next.

She sat next to him, looking at him, letting him look at her, giving him more than he had any right to expect simply by gracing him with her unencumbered radiance. That was good enough for him, so he simply waited rather than move a muscle or say a word, for fear of screwing anything up and driving her away.

He noticed a tear catching the light from her eyes, sparkling as it rolled down to the tips of her long eyelashes. He vaguely wondered what that was about. This was still Tali, somehow, and Tali wasn't supposed to cry. It was his job to make sure that didn't happen, right?

She turned away from him in a flash, reaching out for her mask and blinking, half the light in John's universe dimming every time she shut her eyes.

He had to do something, and whatever it was, he had to do it quickly. Time slowed as she reached for her visor, her hand already halfway to its destination.

_Do I stop her?_

_Of course you stop her!_

_What if she really wants to put her visor back on? What right do I have to interfere?_

_She doesn't want to do that! She's doing it because you were supposed to say something nice about her and you failed. You _knew_ she was self-conscious about her appearance._

_Bullshit. She sees humans and asari. She has to know how she compares to us and them. She's doing this because she wants to. I'll wait until she gets that thing back on and then we'll sort this out._

Tali's hand wrapped around the visor and started pulling it back to her.

_She's crying you idiot! Stop her and say something!_

_No. She could be crying for any reason. Women do it all the time. How do I know anything I do will help? If I try to stop her, she might become more upset with me and storm off. It's just safer to wait a few hours._

_You have no problem with staring certain death in the face. Every. Single. Day. And now you're scared of Tali? The same timid little Tali who idolizes everything about you and considers you to be her most prized personal possession?_

_But she isn't... She's... She's so..._

_She's Tali. Do it._

His hand shot out and caught her arm just as her mask eclipsed her face. He didn't know what he was doing, but somehow he found himself lowering her hands and the object within them, bringing them to her lap. She turned to look at him, eyes almost closed in anguish, tears silently streaming down her face, lower lip frightfully quivering.

John's heart broke. She really had no clue. His face compressed in despair and his own eyes watered, realizing what he had done. "Please don't cry," he whispered in a cracking voice through moist lips.

"Why not?" she asked, her voice taught from holding back an immanent break-down, "I'm hideous. But... It's okay... It's okay," she forced a smile through her tears, holding up her visor to him "'Cause- 'cause I can live- live like this- " her distorted smile faltered, "b-behind this- this mask..." her final words twisted into a wail, lost behind the full force of a tortured crying fit.

John was taken aback at hearing her unmodulated voice for the first time. Her lips didn't match the words that his translator supplied, but that was to be expected. Though ruined with sadness, her accented tone was pure and sublime. He hated himself for marring his first memories of that voice through his own incompetence.

What she did next truly shocked him. Her head low, tears falling directly from her face to her lap, she let her mask fall to the ground. Without looking up to him, still lost in hysterics, she grabbed onto his torso with both hands and buried her head in his chest, almost knocking him over. It was all John could do just to stroke her cheek and kiss the top of her head.

He had never felt so terrible in his life. Tali had been scared to show him her face and he'd ignored it. When given with the opportunity to assuage her fears, he sat there dumbfounded instead. Now, the poor girl felt so bad that she wanted to hide her face from him, but more than that, she needed to be comforted in light of an incredibly huge risk that she thought had turned out so awfully. And where did she turn to for that comfort? To him. To the very thing that had caused all her distress in the first place. The solace that he could provide meant more to her than that mask, despite everything that had just transpired.

"I'm- I'm sorry," she wailed into his chest, her hot tears streaming down his abs and into his groin, "I'm so, so sorry-"

"Enough of that," he cut her off, his voice stern. The only thing he could do now was to fix this mess he'd created. It shouldn't be too hard.

...

"Enough of that," said John, using that voice that made her do whatever he demanded without a moment's thought or hesitation.

She willed herself to calm down. Being an ugly freak wasn't the end of the Fleet, even if it meant that her own _saera_ couldn't bear to look at her. She still had him, she hoped. He had promised to still love her. She would just have to keep the mask on. _That'll be enough, won't it? He won't leave me if I never take that thing off again, will he? I mean, humans can't bond, but John is different, right?_

She lifted her head from his chest, her nose leaving a wet, runny trail between his pectorals. She avoided facing him, not wanting to disgust him further. "It's- It's not all about looks, right?" she asked, fighting back the tears as instructed, "I can do so much more-"

"May I kiss you?" he quickly interrupted her.

"What?" She faced him and cocked her head to the side, her turmoil momentarily forgotten. His words confused Tali more than anything else. _What in the human hell is he asking me for? There's nothing I _won't_ let him do to me._

He asked again, his voice shaking, the smell of his fear permeating the air, "May," he took a deep breath, "I," he took another one, "kiss you," he finally finished.

Tali simply nodded, her pouty lips still quivering, at a complete loss as to her human's behavior.

He leaned in close, his lips millimeters from hers. She felt his unfiltered breath across her mouth and nose, really taking it in for the first time and savoring it, unlike the frenzied passion of last time. Her eyes almost rolled back in her head, it intoxicated her so. Gently, he pressed into her, their lips meeting briefly before he pulled away.

"So you're not vomiting, and at least you made an effort to kiss me," she shrugged, joking bitterly, "I suppose that means I could have looked worse." She turned away and moved to recover her mask from the carpet.

Stalled by a hand that grabbed onto her arm, she turned back to him, disappointed at having to spend another second unmasked even if that meant getting to hear him spout some of his beautiful lies. His face held a look similar to the one he had before. A look of shock, but this time the set of his eyebrows told her that it was laced with anger.

"What?" she asked.

"Tali..." he said slowly, hesitating, "You are the most beautiful person I have ever seen in my life. I am absolutely stunned with how gorgeous you are. Look at me. Really look. I'm not exaggerating."

Tali did just that. She could tell when John was lying to someone, she could tell when he was only trying to make someone feel better, and she could tell when he was being totally sincere. This time he meant every single word he had said. "Really?" she asked incredulously, though her expression and mood lightened instantly.

He nodded, remaining completely sincere. "May I kiss you?" he asked, "Again?"

Satisfied that it had been some kind of misunderstanding, she still had one issue to resolve. Her incomprehensible human had insisted on once more asking for what should be freely taken. That could not be tolerated. A smile curled at the edges of her lips, broadening to expose her bright white teeth and all eight of her dangerously sharp canines. If possible, her eyes seemed to twinkle even more as they widened in sly anticipation. She would have to lead by example, it seemed.

She threw back her _realk_ and undid the clasps from the rest of her helm in a flurry of finger movement, dropping the apparatus along with its disconnected tubes in a matter of seconds. Free of its confines, her dark wavy locks fell around her as she tossed her head from side to side. She enjoyed the feeling of her fingers on her scalp as she fixed her hair in a way that she'd seen Jane and Miranda do, all of it behind her ears, with some in front of her shoulders and some behind. She wished it could have been John's fingers doing that, but she would rectify that situation soon enough. She wouldn't be able to understand him without her helmet's built-in translator, of course, but he wasn't going to be saying anything intelligible anyway with what she was about to do to him.

Finished preparing, she turned back to her soon-to-be bondmate, adding a low, reverberating growl to her predatory smile and heavily lidded gaze. She bounced up from the bedside and brought her legs beneath her, splaying her tows deeply into the sheets. John looked a little worried and moved half a foot away from her. She responded by moving that much closer to him.

They kept up that back and forth, him scooting away, smiling and softly barking at her in the human language, her creeping closer to him on all fours, licking her teeth and lips, her raven curls falling aimlessly over her face.

Her human was probably worried that she was going to hurt him after the last time. That was the complete opposite of what she was going to do to him. Sure, he might scream a little...

She wasn't sure if it was his endearing looks of concern or her eagerness to have him in her arms that did it. Either way, she couldn't wait a second longer. She had to do it.

She pounced.

...

Two hours and only some minor scratches later, John lay in bed running his fingers along Tali's scalp, through her long black hair. Her head pressed against him as she drooled through her open mouth and onto his chest hairs, some of which she uncomfortably clung to. He tried to ignore the sensation, along with her obtrusive snoring and the growing numbness in his left arm, now pinned under roughly seventy kilos of lean quarian muscle and dense enviro-suit.

As he brushed her hair aside, he felt his hand rub against some kind of pointed growth on the side of her head. Shifting her hair aside, he uncovered what he had correctly suspected was an ear, something he hadn't been paying much attention to earlier in the night. He rolled his eyes in aggravated disbelief and sighed. _Of course they had to be elf ears_, he thought,_ There's no possible way they could have been anything less cute. _

He gently stroked her ear from the its tip to its base, bringing a smile to the dozing woman. Her ears had no real lobes like a human might have. Instead, her skin tapered from the bottom of her ear-proper to meet the lower corner of her jaw. It seemed sensitive to the touch, but in a good way, as each time he ran a finger along it she murmured charming little noises and curled her toes into the bed-sheets as if trying to grasp at something.

"Mmm... John," she mumbled, "That... Yeah."

He brought his inspection to a halt as she slowly opened her eyes to favor him with a bright smile. She sat up, planting an elbow in his chest resting her head in her hand. The movement brought her hair cascading down to tickle his chest. His breath caught in his throat as she leaned in to kiss him.

"Thank you," she said into his lips, "For making tonight so special for me."

"I... You're, uh, welcome," was all he could come up with. "Are you sure you'll be okay after-" he swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly dry, "You know..."

Tali cocked her head to the side and smiled like a school girl. "I have _no_ idea what you're saying, silly. All I hear is _bark, bark, bark_."

John smiled and shook his head, causing her to giggle. She pushed him down, deeper into the bed, swinging a leg over his hips to straddle him.

"I know a little human," she said slowly, giggling, "and I think you said 'I'd like some more loving, please, Mrs. Shepard.'"

"No, Tali, That's not what I-"

She silenced him with a finger over his lips. "Shhh. I heard you the first time, Mister Shepard," she said, placing her face right above his.

Her hair fell all around his head as she leaned over him, blocking his vision of everything else except her. Behind the opaque curtain of her locks, her eyes were so close that they blinded him when open and left him in total darkness when closed. The moment could not have been more romantic. Until she reared back and sneezed a load of mucus onto his face.

John rolled his eyes and jabbed a finger in the direction of her helmet, suddenly not quite as humbled by the divine enchantress as he once was.

Tali looked appalled with herself, both hands shooting up to cover her mouth and nose. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" she yelped, jumping off him and running to retrieve a moistened towel from the bathroom. She returned, mumbling to herself, loud enough for him to hear. "Stupid. Stupid. I'm so stupid, why do I always have to ruin everything..."

John climbed out of bed to meet her, the quarian's helmet in one hand, her visor in the other. They exchanged items with each other, John wiping his face down and Tali clasping her helmet around her head after first pulling her hair into a taught bun. She gave him one last peck on the cheek before locking her visor into place and pulling her _realk_ over her head.

John smirked at her, strangely relieved to have the old Tali back, so to speak. He wrapped his arms tight around her before sitting on the bed and pulling her with him. "It's okay, Tals," he said, "Are you feeling alright? I think we did a little more than you intended."

"I know," she sighed, "I'll go see Karin tomorrow morning at sick call. I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself, seeing you... naked... and so..." she struggled for an appropriate euphemism, "willing. You weren't saying 'no' or 'stop' or anything." She considered that for a moment before suddenly turning to face him. "Were you?"

"Uh, well, yeah, I was," he admitted. Seeing her look of fear and astonishment, visible even through her visor, he quickly amended his statement with a smile. "But I didn't mean it. I was just worried about how you'd... take it."

"Oh, it was absolutely incredible," she said softly, leaning against him, idly playing with his limp member while she spoke, "Just doing that to you made me come when you did. And there was so much of it. I had to swallow like three times."

"I didn't need to hear that."

"And it tasted great-"

"Stop it. That's really gross."

She playfully slapped his chest. "Is not! I would never do anything gross. I think I'm gonna need a _lot _of practice, though, so I don't choke and gag so much next time. I hope you're up for it."

John shook his head in disappointment as it became clear to him that she was enjoying making him uncomfortable.

"I took some extra medication before I dozed off," she said, changing the subject in deference to his modesty, "so that should help. If my reaction isn't too severe, you know what that means."

"You're adapting to me?" he ventured.

"Well, yes," she said seductively, "_and_ it means we can go all the way next time."

At first, he felt ecstatic, but the more he thought about it, the more apprehensive the Spectre became.

First and foremost, the quarian's health was a concern, although it was hard to believe that traditional intercourse would be any worse for her than what she did to him only a couple of hours ago.

Secondly, it had occurred to him that without spending some time to get used to Tali's unsuited 'alter-ego,' he could very well finish too early and disappoint her when the time came. He'd have to talk to Mordin about that. Maybe the salarian had a prescription that would help. Karin might be able to help too, but talking to her about something this sensitive would feel like getting the sex-talk from his mother all over again.

"That's great," he said, "but there's no rush. You're health is what matters most to me."

"I know, John, I know," she said, curling up against him a little tighter, "That's part of why I love you so much."

"I've been wondering," he said, "You've seen me naked. Do we, you know, match? In that way?"

"Yeah," she said in a breathy voice, looking up at him, "Definitely. I mean, I can tell you're a heck of a lot bigger than what I'm supposed to have inside me. It'll take some effort, but I think I can make you fit. I mean we have to give birth and you're not _that_ big."

"So you've got nothing weird going on down..." he pointed to her crotch, "...there?"

"Like what? A set of teeth?" she joked, "I've seen more human women's private parts than quarians' and I hadn't noticed any external differences."

That brought a host of dirty thoughts to John's mind.

"And that makes sense to me," she continued, "I mean, any female that gives birth to live young is going to have a place for babies to come out. You can put your man parts in there. That's pretty standard, I think."

John chuckled at her over simplistic explanation and rolled over, ready for a good night's sleep while Tali curled up behind him, wrapping herself around her _inszel_ as tightly as she could.

**Please review this.**

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**I might do some WE:TR next time.**


	14. The House That Jack Built

**A/N A couple of things about WE:TR:**

**1) Jane did not tell anyone about what actually happened on Torfan. She only remembered it in her head. She brings it up, saying "I know I told you I'd tell you about Torfan..." then says "...I lied. I can't ever tell you about that." I'm paraphrasing myself, but you get the idea. So Garrus doesn't know and therefore cannot get mad at her or leave her for it. Only Jane, the surviving members of her old team, and Terp know what really happened.**

**2) There are some people that are surprised that she got away with it or that it happened at all. I'm surprised that you're surprised. This whole incident was based on an actual occurrence. The circumstance, the names, and even the quotes were taken directly from the actual incident. The only difference between this story and the real thing was that Jane got away with it. In the real thing, they were only caught (that one time; there are strong suspicions that there were others) when Thompson showed up. They were eventually tried for their crimes. They all got off without punishment except for one lieutenant, who spent a short amount of time in prison before getting a presidential pardon. These were all _normal_ people like you and I, not some hand-picked team of killers with a broken and mentally disturbed CO. But I had to make my story believable, right? **

**3) There _will_ be a resolution to Jane's actions, with significant fallout, but it might not be for a while.**

**Thank you to everyone who has Reviewed, Favorited, or Followed.**

Chapter 23: The House That Jack Built

Jane opened the door to Liara's apartment and stepped inside and gasped. _Shite, no!_ ..._Thank God Kelly has Junior._

The police and crime-scene investigators looked up from their evidence gathering to regard the human before turning back to their work. She wore casual clothes, tight blue jeans, and a hooded sweatshirt, the red stripe giving away her standing as an N7 operator. It garnered her a significant degree of respect from the officers, something that was almost assuredly erased by her status as a Spectre.

She had to present her credentials to the guards at the front door just to gain access, alerting those inside that she was expected. They didn't seem to be too happy about her presence, no doubt concluding that she was going to take over the investigation. That was a safe bet, since she was about to do just that.

Few law enforcement officials could stand to be in the presence one of the inter-galactic knights-errant without a resentful chill running up their spines. Jane caught the eye of the asari standing in Liara's lofted bedroom from its position above the main floor. She was giving the human an odd look. She wasn't a cop, more than likely a fellow Spectre, based on the logo on the armor she wore. That also meant that she was either smug about her position or too cheap or too poor to afford custom armor... or at least a decent paint job.

The human looked down at her hoodie and rolled her eyes, her mental appraisal of the other woman having hit a little too close to home. It was a souvenir from her days at the villa that she'd been pressured into buying at graduation by Johnny their her friends. She wore it everywhere that it might conceivably be considered appropriate attire in, eschewing everything from blouses to suits to jackets.

She found the senior ranking police officer present, a turian detective-sergeant and walked purposefully up to the man.

"What's the deal?" she asked without introduction.

He turned to her to respond, but paused when he saw her, as if surprised by something.

"So you're really a Vakarian now?" he asked, his subharmonics laced with humor.

Jane touched a hand to one of her checks, imprinted with a blue stain from her impromptu make-out session over dinner.

"You should have asked him for help before you painted-" he was cut off by the asari Spectre as she descended the stair case.

"Someone tried to kill your friend, Captain Shepard," she said calmly, "And you've got some stuff on your face."

Jane already hated her, but felt more than a little relieved at the word 'tried.' She had asked the police officer, not this woman. Clearly, she thought of herself as the most important person in the room. The human was going to waste no time in disabusing her of that notion.

"Yeah, it's supposed to be there," said Jane, referring to the colony paint, "So you've heard of me. Who are you?"

"Tela Vasir, and this is my investigation," the woman replied. She turned to the investigator, "You all can leave."

The man looked like he was about to protest. Jane held up a hand to forestall him.

"No," she said, "This is _my_ investigation. You can still leave though."

He shook his head and headed for the front door, a wave of his hand signaling his comrades to follow. Any other Spectre, even a biotic like an asari, might have garnered further argument from the man. With Jane Shepard however, he just did as he was told.

"Captain, I heard you were reinstated," said the asari, walking up to the woman and stopping a respectful distance away, "But you know the rules. I got here first, so this one's mine. We can do it together, if you want."

Jane crossed her arms under her bust and considered that, cocking her head to the side as she eyed the other woman up and down. She was trying to be a nicer person these days, she really was. That meant respecting the established order, even if she didn't like it. Johnny would have wanted her to back down, had he been there with her. Besides, it's not like the asari could stop her from doing things her way if she were really determined about it.

"Fine," said the human, "I need to get my people here as soon as possible to wrap up this investigation. I should also call whatever department was here so we can get whatever data they found..."

"We could do that," agreed the asari, "but Miss T'Soni was here for a solid _four minutes_ after she was shot at, according to the building's security systems. The sniper didn't count on her kinetic barriers. Clever girl."

"So?" replied Jane, tightening her crossed her arms and cocking out a hip. She couldn't tell if she was really supposed to take anything away from that piece of information, or if the asari was just trying to make her feel stupid. A Spectre or not, she wasn't cut out for this kind of work. She needed a real investigator here as soon as possible. She needed Garrus, and maybe someone like Mordin to help analyze whatever they found.

"So, it means that she may have hidden something here, just for you," replied the woman.

"Why me?" the human asked, her gaze narrowing.

"Because she was expecting you."

_Gotcha, bitch!_ Jane's right hand released its grip on her opposite elbow and gravitated to her pistol. She locked eyes with the woman, searching for any trace of the coming counter-attack. "How do you know that...?" she asked slowly.

The woman rolled her eyes as the captain resisted the urge to back-hand her. "Because you're here and this isn't public yet. And she's an old associate of yours; a very good one based on all the photographs and holos in her baby's nursery. Speaking of which, do you think she took the child with her?"

"That child is none of your business," replied the woman. She felt out of her element and a little too personally invested to think straight. That kind of attitude would compromise any unbiased analysis of the situation. She had been so keen to finger the other Spectre, but in hindsight it should be obvious to any third party that Liara had been expecting her.

The other woman held up her hands and took a step back, making it clear she had only spoken out of concern.

"You might be right," said Jane. "We should look around."

"Good," the woman agreed with a smile, "You take the upstairs and I'll start down here."

"No, not 'we' as in you and I," said the human, activating her omni-tool, "I mean 'we' as in my people and I."

She scrolled through her contacts until she found the one she sought. The asari huffed and took a seat on the nearby couch, starting to know her place. Good.

"_Hello?_"

"Hey babe," said Jane, "Can you and Mordin meet me at Liara's place? I'd like you to look into something for me, if you don't mind, and the professor might be able to help too."

"_Well, I'm at Eternity with the ground team, talking to one of Miranda's contacts. We're about to start this mission off. Is it important?_"

"Yeah," she said, "Yeah, it is. Someone tried to assassinate Liara. She's missing."

"_We'll be right over. I'll pick up your weapons and armor from the _Normandy_._"

...

"Well," said Garrus as he walked down the stairs to the foyer, "The only thing I've found that might be a message is this photograph of the SR1."

He held out the picture to show Jane and Tela, then started examining it again, stroking a mandible.

"I got suspicious because it's of the old ship," he said, still focused on the object, "And when I scanned it, I discovered some very recent modifications to the code in the display drivers. I'll need Tali's help to really get a good look at it, but I'm guessing it's something to control what picture it displays. There are several files in here. One might be a message."

"May I see it?" asked Jane.

"Sure," he replied, handing the photo to her, "If we can't figure this out, we might have to start busting open artifacts-"

"Garrus?" she interrupted him.

"Yeah?"

"We might have to do that anyway," she said, showing him the picture, "It changed as soon as I touched it. These are the prothean ruins from Ilos."

"Well, damn," he said, looking around the room, "It _was_ a message to you. We need to look for something prothean." He surveyed the dozens and dozens of precious relics all about the apartment with a confused expression. He looked for all the galaxy like a parrot trying to do algebra. He noticed one case in particular. "Too bad everything but her collection of miniature glass animals looks prothean to me."

"Me too," she agreed. Cracking her blue-glowing knuckles, she started off for one of the other display cases.

The turian shook his head. "Liara is gonna be so pissed..."

"Perhaps additional clues are similarly touch-activated," suggested Mordin, gently placing a hand on the human's shoulder, causing her to pause in her trek to the nearest object.

"Still gotta break the glass though," she replied grimly. She would have to pay for a professional cleaning service after this. Her daughter would _not_ hurt herself playing in broken glass.

"Might try getting close to them first," said the salarian scientist, "If the photo was coded to your ID, most likely probability is that it uses a short range RF transmitter. Anything within one meter of your wrist should be sufficient."

"Alright," Jane agreed, "I guess I'll start with this one."

She walked over to the nearest artifact on the first floor, a small stone monolith with hieroglyphs of some kind carved into it. The edges had been rounded off and bits and pieces had fallen off, clustering around its base. As she stuck a hand out to palm the glass, a hidden drawer opened to reveal a disk.

"Hey, guys. Looks like we have a winner," said the human Spectre.

...

The data had been a recording of a conversation between Liara and a salarian named Sekat. The latter had some information he wished to deliver to the asari information broker personally, requesting her presence at his office in the Dracon Trade Center. It was a short ride from the apartment, only a few hundred kilometers across the sprawling city to a place called Baria Frontiers.

Presently, the pair of Spectres, along with the salarian professor and turian ex-C-Sec officer, found themselves in an air-car headed to the man's office. Tela drove while the three other occupants of the vehicle took in the view of the expansive skyline, stretching from horizon to horizon even at their present altitude. Hopefully, they would be able to find both Liara and this individual, and along with them, any actionable intelligence that either of them had uncovered, including whatever had been alluded to in that recording.

The nature of the data remained a mystery, but it was definitely the location of something, and Sekat said it could be narrowed down to a cluster or even a system. Considering that Jane had earlier passed on data to Liara about the information broker's former associate, the chances were good that the data pertained to his whereabouts. If that was the case, then that meant...

Jane turned to Garrus, "So, you think this guy knows where the Shadow Broker is?" As she asked the question, she caught the corner of the Tela's eye as it shifted back from the human to the flight-path in front of her. Jane's initial impressions of the woman were not improving.

"Could be," replied the turian, letting out a low and extended rumble, "But let's take this one step at a time. Sekat could have been on the case of some obscure prothean relic or something. You never know."

Jane nodded. "Agreed." She most definitely did agree, but not with the words that met her translator. Rather, it was with his subtle subharmonics that met her ears while tingling her spine. He might has well have said, '_I don't trust this woman one damn bit, and neither should you. We'll talk more in private._'

The air-car ride ended in a parking spot at the base of the trade center. Tela took the lead into the building before stopping on the front steps. She called over her shoulder to her companions, "Why don't you guys-"

An explosion killed any chance of hearing her words, temporarily deafening everyone within five hundred meters. Mordin and the Asari Spectre were knocked to the ground. Jane would have joined them had Garrus not caught her. When they could hear again, screams and shouts pierced the air, complemented by the moans of the dying. Sirens could be heard from both the building's security system and from approaching police vehicles.

Jane was pissed. "Why don't we what, Huh?!" she asked in a rage, "You! You were gonna tall us to go ahead while you wait here, weren't you?!"

"I... No," replied the startled asari, "I was going to say, why don't you call this guy and let him know we're here."

The captain grumbled under her breath. She was joined by her boyfriend, his discontent loud enough to be felt in her chest.

"But it doesn't seem to matter now," Tela continued, "because his floor has been completely blown out. We should look for survivors. You head in the front and I'll start at the top and work my way down." She started toward the idling air-car.

"No," Jane said flatly.

"Jane's right, we should stick together on this one," seconded Garrus.

"I'm a Spectre, I'm used to working alone," protested the asari, "I can handle it."

"Fine," Jane said quickly, glancing to the turian as she expanded her shotgun, "We won't stop you. But you're not going to have an air-car." She fired a round through the vehicle's open door and into its control panel, following it up with two more rounds to the car's power-plant. Although it didn't explode, it was as good as scrap. The human Spectre bit her lip and looked away when she realized why her own words had been so familiar.

"What the actual fuck?!" screamed the asari, "Is there a reason you just trashed my car?"

"I'll buy you a new one when this is all over," said Jane, giving her an exaggerated shrugs and a smile, her shotgun still in hand, "I did that to keep you from doing something stupid."

"There are no bad guys here!" yelled the other woman, "And even if there was, I told you I'd be fine!"

"I said that I did that to keep you from doing something stupid," she replied with a smirk, "Not to keep you safe." The human's expression turned hard and she eyed the other woman a moment longer. Turning away, she started up the stairs to the building, Mordin following in tow.

Garrus expanded his Revenant and waited next to the asari. He smiled at the woman, expanding his mandibles wide, and gestured with a hand for her to proceed after the pair. Only once she started moving did the turian bring up the rear.

...

Tela's earlier assessment about the likelihood of hostilities inside the office building had been demonstrably inaccurate. Many of the civilians who weren't killed in the blast had been shot execution-style, and for what purpose, no one could guess. There had been little if anything the group could do for the few remaining survivors. They applied medi-gel and tourniquets as needed, then moved on.

Jane had counted over a dozen active enemy shooters before she lost track somewhere on the second floor. Garrus kept a kill counter in his visor, something she wanted to start doing for the times when she went on ground missions, and she would ask for numbers later. By the time she reached the door to the Baria Frontiers office on the third, she held no illusions about exactly how valuable this data was and what someone was willing to do to keep it secret.

She took point on the left side of the door, followed by Tela, Mordin, then Garrus. She hesitated just as she was about to palm the haptic control.

"Tela," she said slowly, looking over her shoulder at the woman, "You're what we'd call a Vanguard too, right?"

The other woman nodded.

"How about you take point this time, then?" she suggested, "I took a rather nasty hit back there and I'm feeling out of it. I think that no matter what's behind door, we've got to have someone who's at one hundred percent leading the charge." Jane excuse was only half true. She _had_ taken a rather painful concussive round to the head, and her kinetic barriers hadn't absorbed the entire impact. She was not, however, feeling out of it.

The part she hadn't mentioned, or even hinted at, was her concern over having someone behind her that might shoot her in the back.

"Of course," replied the other woman as she stepped in front of the human, "I'd be glad to."

"One other thing," added Jane, "Be careful with your aim."

The asari's gaze narrowed on the red-head. "I will."

Once she was in position, Garrus signaled Mordin who passed it up to Jane. The human leaned into the asari and squeezed her shoulder. Tela slapped the haptic interface and charged into the room, sending a trio of shotgun blasts at the sole enemy in the room.

Jane had just reached her corner on far left side of the room when she heard the blasts. Having cleared the room to that point, and trusting that her comrades had done the same, she turned to the sound. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Garrus had his rifle trained on the Tela. Trusting his instincts, she slowly brought up her weapon to join his in leveling on the woman's chest.

"You killed him," the ex-C-sec officer spoke before anyone else could. He nodded, not in the direction of the dead mercenary, but at a prone salarian with blood pooling around his head, fervently tended to by Liara T'Soni.

"It was an accident," said the asari Spectre as she walked over to the fallen civilian. She hadn't collapsed her shotgun yet, choosing instead to keep it at the ready, keeping the turian in the corner of her eye as she moved. "Sekat was in the way... I can't help it if he took some of the spread to the face."

"Like hell it was an accident," said Garrus, stepping closer to the woman, "You took two steps to the side as you entered, almost as if you wanted him in the way. And why did you adjust your choke? You had tighter groups until now."

"Answer him Tela," seconded Jane, the blue halo of a mass effect field surrounding the deadly human, "Why _did _you adjust your choke?" Truth be told, Jane hadn't noticed anything of the sort, but if Garrus saw it, then it was an undisputed fact as far as she was concerned. Like Johnny, the turian's judgments were rarely, if ever, questioned by the human Spectre.

"It was a room clearing," protested the woman, "Tight quarters with and a short range... A wider spread is more effective." Tela started to kneel over the man's body, crouching next to Liara. She had appeared to be looking up and down over him, as if searching for something.

"I told you to be careful," said the human, "We knew there might be civilians in here. Get up! Get away from them."

At the human's words, she stood and smiled. "I was just checking to see if he had the data."

"No," yelled Jane, "Liara will do it. You stand by that window." She nodded to the clear glass overlooking the courtyard below.

The asari looked hurt. She started moving back to the body and Liara. She was immediately stalled by the sight greeting her. The asari doctor had the man's information disc in one hand and a pistol in the other. The latter had its muzzle pointed right at her face.

Tela raised both hands in the air, one still clutching at her weapon. "You all can't be serious-"

"Do you want to risk that?" asked Liara, "I didn't know him well, but I feel like I should kill you for what you did." Her index finger fluttered over the trigger-well as she spoke.

That surprised Jane. First the comments she had made when they were reunited in her office, and now this. The woman had changed, and not for the better. The human sighed to herself. She would have thought she had been a bad influence on the young asari, but she'd been dead for two years.

"Hold it, Liara," she said, raising a calming hand, "Let's not go crazy here. That might have been an accident-"

"Of course it was an accident!" interrupted the other Spectre, throwing her shotgun to the ground in a show of exasperation.

"Jane, I was hit too. I'm lucky I had my barriers up," said Liara.

The human groaned. This was bad. "She's a Spectre, so lets not start an incident over this. We have the data and you," she turned to Tela, "have a ton of evidence and bodies to process in your investigation into who wants the mother of my child dead. We're out of here."

"Not so fast," said the asari, "That data is part of my investigation." She took as step closer to Jane.

In response, Garrus switched to disruptor rounds, changed the view of his rifle optics to high-resolution thermal, and zeroed its cross-hairs onto her beating heart. Mordin readied a blast of freezing solution, chilled to one-and-a-half degrees Kelvin. Liara stood up and slipped the information disc into a tight pocket at her waist, never taking her pistol off the woman.

Jane smiled pleasantly. "No. That's part of my ongoing investigation into an abductee held by the Shadow Broker. Lodge a formal complaint with the council if you want, but you said it before: I got to it first. I'll mail you a copy, if you want."

Jane made her way to the office door, never taking her eyes, or her weapon, off the woman. She paused and considered what to do with the other Spectre. "I think you should come with us, at least until we get out of here," she said to the asari, "It'll be safer for you since we know this place is crawling with mercs."

"No, it's okay, I-"

"But I insist," said Jane, her tone harsh. She waved her gun at the front door, letting her know that she was expected to go first.

"Where are we going?" the other woman asked.

"The roof," replied Jane, "Garrus, call for pick-up. That's the way _you_ wanted to come in, wasn't it?" she asked her rhetorically, "Something tells me that we won't be having any trouble then."

...

Jane lept into the waiting shuttle just after Garrus. "So, you need a ride anywhere?" she asked Tela, still pointing her shotgun at the woman.

"I'll find my own way, thank you," she replied.

"Good. Saves me the trouble. I'll take your weapons though," said Jane.

The other woman looked as if she wanted to murder the lot of them. It probably wasn't too far from the truth. "What am I supposed to do without my guns? Those are expensive, and I have to pay for them."

Jane gave the woman a toothy smile. They both knew she had won, for the time being at least. "I'm sure you'll manage. Remove them with a thumb and forefinger only," she said, "Don't expand them. That makes me twitchy. Accidents happen when I get twitchy."

The asari did as she was told, holding out the weapons out one at a time for the woman. Garrus collected them, being sure to thank her for each one he received.

The disarmed Spectre piped up when she handed over her last one, a pistol. "That was my mother's you know."

"Send me her address," replied Jane, pocketing the compact handgun, "I'll mail it back to her, along with some money for her new air-car." _Damn, this would have been so much cheaper if I'd just killed her._

...

"So there's another little Miranda running around out there," Jack commented to the male Shepard as he stepped out of his quarters, "Kinda sucks what happened to her and all."

Jack could sympathize with someone who had been manipulated and controlled like that, but only slightly. That didn't extend to being able to stand any more time in the presence of the Cerberus Cheerleader than was absolutely necessary, but it helped take the edge off. Being around Miranda after hearing about the pain of her past was like taking a hefty drink of liquor before having her teeth pulled. It gave her a warm feeling all over, but nothing more.

No doubt the commander would eventually bring up their 'similar' situations as a starting point for some female bonding between the two women, but Jack would have to set him straight on that little fantasy. As far as the convict was concerned, the operative's decadent lifestyle and the choices she'd made since escaping her father would forever keep her out of the realm of social toleration. On the other hand, the younger woman had no problem respecting the genetically perfect woman's rank and position, something that had thankfully been made clear by the boyscout.

"Are you talking about Miri, Oriana, or both?" he asked as he filed past her to leave his room, heading to the elevator. Just before she could fall into step beside him, his quarian guard dog pushed past her and took that spot, brushing her shoulder in the process. The purple-suited engineer glanced back over her shoulder as she took the Spectre's arm and kept walking. She fixed her competition with a withering glare, somehow made more sinister because of, rather than in spite of, her almost-opaque mask. Jack gave the girl her best sneer and moved over to her fellow human's other side, strongly resisting resisting the urge to grab his other arm. Somewhat awkwardly, the group, three abreast, made their way through the first-floor elevator doors. Jack pressed the button for deck three.

"I was talking about both, actually," she said. That was basically true. Her assessment was based on a few plausible assumptions. There were varying degrees of suck in the galaxy, and having been not only used as, but genetically designed to be, your own father's personal sex-toy certainly fit somewhere along that spectrum. On principle alone, Jack would help the executive officer in any way she could to kill both her father and his men. But that didn't in any way mean she sympathized with the woman. Not at all.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" John asked her.

Tali's inquisitive head poked out from the other side of the commander.

Jack involuntarily rolled her eyes at the other woman's paranoia. Back when she had first come aboard, that might have been warranted, but not now. Something had changed in the convict, and she would no longer be content with merely taking what she wanted from him and throwing him to the curb when she was finished. _No, I'm not gonna knock you out and violate your man, bucket-head_, 'c_ause then... Well then... He'd hate me for that... Well why should I care about that? It's only 'cause then I wouldn't get to do him again, right? _

Jack's brown started to furrow as her ruby lips curled into a frown, her expression the victim of her own thoughts. She couldn't remember the last time she'd given a God damn about anyone else's opinion of her. Both the boyscout and his sister were messing with her head, and she didn't like it one bit.

"You got biotics," she said to him, her tone flat and straightforward. She let her gaze wander over to the man, meeting his as she looked him up and down. She could only lock her eyes on his beautiful baby-blue ones for a second before an uncomfortable surge of anxiety filled her. She forced herself to turn to something less judgmental and disturbingly attractive, like the bulkhead to her left. "So, I uh, thought I'd train you. So you're not just showing your ass out there, is all."

Tali turned her head to the commander, seemingly indecisive on what to think about this. Surely the quarian couldn't deny him something that might keep him alive in the field.

For his part, John didn't even notice his clingy girl's unspoken solicitation. He cocked an eyebrow and stood a little straighter as he chewed on the young human's words. Looking away, she could still feel his eyes on her. She almost hoped he was taking in the view her sparse attire offered him. She dreamed his eyes were lazily strolling up and down her frame... She spared a quick peek up at him, hoping to confirm her suspicion.

His piercing blue eyes were locked on her light-brown ones and not going anywhere else. Initially disappointed, the longer he looked at her, the more she felt an intense shiver running up and down her, intensifying around her things and lower torso. Standing more than a head taller than her, looking so lean, muscular, and handsome in his casual suit, the boyscout could be an enticing combination boyish charm and intimidating sex-appeal. She growled under her breath as her traitorous knees started to weaken in his presence, although she did successfully fight off an attempt to take a step back from him. _Ugh, this is bad... You're just making it worse for yourself, you know that?. Stop looking at him. He doesn't need you, you filthy slut. He's got Princess Goody Two-Shoes. Just stop trying already. Go back to your hole and take a nap. _

At almost the last possible instant before she used her biotics to punch a hole in the wall, the commander broke the spell. "Yeah, that sounds great. I bet there's a thing or two you can teach me."

She let out a heated breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, metering it out slowly so it didn't sound like the sigh of relief that it was. _Oh, yes, fearless leader, there certainly is._

...

"So how'd it go, Shep?" the hooded thief asked her captain as she materialized walking along side the woman.

Jane could smell a hint of the young woman's light but fragrant perfume before she appeared, so she wasn't as jarred by the sudden experience as she could have been. She spared the young woman a glance as she, Garrus, Mordin, and Liara kept walking down the corridor to the combat information center. Kasumi followed along a step behind.

"John back too?" Jane asked the her.

"The commander arrived a few minutes before you did," she replied, "He's grabbing a post-mission drink with Jack and Tali."

"Huh," she replied as she strolled past Kelly, making her way to the port side of the ship, "That's weird."

"Oh, it's non-alcoholic, for sure," said Kasumi.

They made their way into the armory, Jane placing her Claymore and pistol on a weapons bench before the door could even close behind them. They did the same, adding their inventory to the ever growing pile. Jacob raised an eyebrow at the small arsenal, but made no comment. Although Jane surmised that he had been told that they were only conducting in investigation, gun-play should never be ruled out around her.

"Tali doesn't drink, and neither does Johnny during duty hours, so I don't doubt it," said the older woman, "But I never really got the impression that Jack and Tali got along." What she was thinking but wouldn't add for fear of adding fuel to the rumor mill was that the ex-con definitely had a thing for her brother and might feel justified in going to any length to get what she wanted. She had even once warned the young woman about it.

Deciding that the whole affair might be purely innocent, she resolved to make some very, _incredibly_ discreet inquiries into the matter.

"Really?" asked Kasumi, "I thought Tali got along with everyone on this ship."

"Yeah, there's that..." said Jane, scratching the back of her neck. She averted her gaze and started pulling thermal magazines out of her pockets and dump-pouches, covering a small table next to Jacob under a mound of both spent and full cylinders. She moved some sweat-matted hair out of her eyes and looked up at the man with a small, guilty smile. He smiled back and she turned to Kasumi. "But like everyone, she has those she likes more than others."

"Do you think she likes me?" the younger woman asked, a hint of uncertainty crossing her hooded but visible features.

"Oh, yes, definitely," She answered with absolute certainty. _Because your one of the few women aboard who isn't trying to get into my brother's pants_.

Jane turned to Garrus, "Hey babe, can you have Miri pass it along that we're doing the after action review in about an hour? Say, fifteen-thirty?"

"Sure," he replied, turning to leave.

"I'll be in the lounge with Johnny," she called after him, adding, "If you want to come find me."

"I'm gonna get a shower in your room," he said, "then a nap." Turning, he gave the woman a broad turian smile as he left the room.

"I think I'll join him," said Liara.

Jane looked shocked, losing all ability to respond.

The asari covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes going wide when she realized what she said. "In your room! I'm going to join him in there, not the shower. I want to see Junior before the meeting."

Liara backed her way out of the room, suddenly stopping when her butt bumped the door. She let out a sharp squeal of surprise and quickly swung her head over her shoulder. Seeing that her backside had somehow managed to activate the haptic control anyway, she rushed through the open door without a second glance.

Jane shook her head and chuckled at the woman's antics, feeling slightly miffed that Garrus hadn't even tried to kiss her goodbye. She turned back to Kasumi, but found only empty space greeting her. She sniffed the air a few times, drawing a strange look from Jacob.

"Did you see...?" her question trailed off.

The armorer gave her a quizzical expression.

"Never mind." She shook her head and started for the door that would take her to the elevator.

...

The captain paused outside the lounge and listened intently for any sign that she would have to either defend her little sister against the convict or slam her brother's head against the bar for being a cheating heathen. Hearing only the rumblings of soft conversation, she willed her biotics to cease the involuntary aura they projected around her. She palmed the door controls and stepped inside, doing her best to look like she had just walked up instead of having waited outside for a full minute.

...

"...So yeah, that's how you can add a biotic kick to your ammo." Jack swiveled in her chair to face the newcomer advancing on the trio of warfighters. It was none other than her most favorite canvas, and one of the few people in the universe to earn her admiration. "Heya, Cap'n. Wassup?"

The convict had been sitting at the bar next to John, discussing the finer points of using a biotic warps to enhance his weapon's ammunition, when their captain strolled into the lounge. The woman's stance had a touch of uncertainty in it, combined with impatience, as if she was expecting an explanation for tattooed woman's presence in the vicinity of her brother.

Tali sat between the two chatting humans and a little away from the bar, forming a small triangle of bodies with the three comrades. Jack gave the male Shepard's quarian babysitter a sidelong glance before focusing back on the captain. She felt an extremely small twinge of guilt creep over her, not at the thought of coming between John and Tali, but at simply considering to go against Jane's expressed instructions to the contrary.

Without warning, the dimly lit area behind the bar began to shimmer. Jack noticed out of the corner of her eye as the ship's resident thief materialized behind her, already in the process of rummaging through the storage cabinets.

"Hey kids, how you guys doing?" the captain asked the trio as she came to a stop in front of them. "Looks like I caught you guys in the middle of a post-mission celebration. Whatcha drinking?" she asked, looking straight at Jack.

"Just Cokes, sis. Dextro one for Tali," her brother answered with a very broad smile.

She smiled back at her twin, reaching between the two other humans to grab his drink from the bar. She brought it to her lips, breathing deeply, taking in its smell. Of course he would be going dry until after duty hours. The woman winked at her brother and set it back down in front of him. "What about you, Jack?" she asked.

"Whiskey," she answered, not letting her voice give away any of the nervousness she felt.

"No... No, no, no, no, what kind? Jim Beam, Jameson, Jack?"

"Ah, uh, Highland Park," she replied uncertainly, catching John's eye just as his chest heaved with a silent chuckle. He knew something she didn't.

"Highland Park?" Jane let her English accent flow on, thick and heavy as she spoke, "That's that Scottish distillery in Kirkwall. I hear they've got some mighty tasty scotch. I've never had any myself. How is it?"

"It's good," answered the ex-con, being as non-committal as she could. The captain was beginning to unnerve her, almost as if she was in the cross-hairs of a sniper. That may not have too far from the truth, considering her warning some days ago.

"You mind if I try some of yours?" the captain asked, pointing to highball glass filled with amber fluid. "This is yours here, right?"

"Yeah," Jack answered. Jane was already reaching across her before question had been completely answered.

Jack looked up at the older woman as she brought the glass up for a sip. The Spectre looked down at the tumbler for half a second, the better to rotate it so her lips matched the waxy red imprint left by Jack's own. Locking eyes with the younger woman, the she started sipping- and kept sipping- slowly tilting her the glass back as she continued, always keeping her gaze locked on the ex-con. After a few seconds, the glass was empty. She flicked her tongue across the rim a few times, coaxing from the glass every last drop of the intoxicating liquid that she could.

"Mmm-hmm, this _is_ a tasty beverage," said Jane, her accent thick enough to be almost indecipherable, "Kasumi. You ever had Highland Park scotch?"

The disinterested thief looked up from whatever she was doing behind the bar to shake her head at the woman.

Jane leaned against Tali as she reached across the trio for the bottle, intent on pouring another eight-count into Jack's glass. "Wanna sip?" she asked Kasumi, "It's real tasty..."

The thief looked up at the woman for another brief second. "Ain't thirsty."

The redhead actually bit her lip at the thief's response. If Jack had to guess, she'd say she was biting back a smile. Jane continued, "Well, if you like whisky, give it a go some time. Me, I can' usually do this, 'cause Garrus doesn't drink much, and that pretty much means that don't drink much either."

Downing the contents of the glass for a second time, she placed it down in front of Jack a little harder than was necessary. "Mmm, I do love the taste of a good scotch."

"I was trying to teach your brother to make warp ammo," said Jack, fed up with the captain's attitude. Picking up the bottle of booze, she continued, "And we'll be practicing it in the hold later... You can go all mamma-bear on that too, if you want."

Instead of refilling her pilfered glass, Jack licked her ruby lips and wrapped them _around_ the mouth of the bottle, throwing her head back and taking a few gulps. She could have put her lips _to_ the mouth of the bottle instead, but that wasn't any fun. On the other hand, she had toyed with the idea of deep-throating its entire neck, so her present company should have been grateful for small favors. Having taken her fill for the time being, she set the sorely depleted container down next to the glass.

Jane smiled an placed her hand on the woman's shoulder. "I _like_ you, you know that?"

"Remind you of yourself?" asked the ex-con, a toothy smirk splitting her face, "But ten years younger?"

Jane scowled at the woman and leaned in close to her, no more than a dozen centimeters separating them. "No. You're a better person than that."

Jack's mischievous grin vanished in an instant, replaced by her usual scowl. Not wanting to feel all touchy-feely at the moment, she edged away from the intimidating captain and cleared her throat loudly, turning it into a cough. Taking the momentary lapse in her composure to think of a way to change the topic of conversation, she leaned back against the bar and turned back to her captain.

"So, are you guys really twins?" she asked.

"Of course we are," John said, "What would make you think otherwise?"

"Well fuck, you guys don't look anything alike. You damn sure don't sound anything alike. You sound American," she said to John and then eyed Jane, "And you sound British as hell, all tea and biscuits and shit. And you call Tali your sister, and you always sound so dead-serious about that, so I figured maybe-"

"I _am_ dead serious about that," said Jane, looking pointedly at her brother, letting everyone know just how much their relationship would count for if Tali got hurt. Still leaning against the quarian, she reached down to squeeze the young alien's thigh, eliciting a not-unhappy chirping noise from the girl. "But as for Johnny and I, well, we were raised separately and that's all you need to know about that."

The captain let her biotics flare so quickly that Jack almost missed it. It lacked the bright flash that gave away a loss of control in the face of anger, or the more directed pulse that served as a precursor to an attack. It shimmered over the woman like an ocean wave touched by the passing beam of a lighthouse. The convict got the message; a partial explanation as to why she had not been raised alongside her brother. Jack understood that. Oh yes, she did.

The tattooed woman solemnly nodded to her superior officer and left it at that.

"I like your accents, actually," said Tali, speaking for the first time since Jane had joined the group. She placed a hand on the commander's shoulder and squeezed, "Well, the one you call 'American' anyway. It sounds very exotic. Sis, yours sounds almost like perfect Khelish."

"Does it?" the older woman asked, "Why is that?"

"I've looked into some of the coding used for translators," said Tali, "It has to do with the writers of the software... They wanted to leave in the various accents to give the listener a sense of the speaker's identity. By your accent Jane, I would guess that you're from around London-"

"Manchester."

"-Or your family is English," she finished.

"More or less," she replied.

"Although listening to John, and knowing what I know about him," the engineer continued, "I would have guessed that your family was from the UNAS somewhere between El Paso and Edmonton."

"More or less," concurred the male Spectre as he stared into his Coke. He took a quick sip then turned back his fiancé, clearly deciding to change the subject, "So you and Lia sound different. Tell me about that...?"

"Oh!" The quarian clapped her hands together, eager for the opportunity to explain about her people. "Well, there are several quarian dialects spoken, but three major ones. The first major one is called Khelish Basic or just Khelish, and Seera speaks that. So do Admirals Han'Gerral, Zaal'Korris, and the one I told you about, Daro'Xen. Kal, Lia, and Veetor, if you remember him-"

Both Shepards nodded.

"-Speak another one called Khelish'Xurdan. Shala, my father, myself, and, ugh, the late Prazza, all speak- or spoke, thank the ancestors- the third one called Khelish'Kuness. Each of those three dialects corresponds to a lineage from one of the three liveships, and before that, one of the many old nations of Rannoch. Only three nations, and none of the old colonies, had the resources to..." Tali paused, looking down and struggling for words, "To launch a..." the young woman started trailing off again, looking rather depressed.

"Your parents- I mean your dad and Shala- Did you get a response from them yet?" asked John, rubbing the girl's shoulders from one side while his sister rubbed the other.

"Huh?" the quarian asked with a head tilt, something Jack had begun to recognize as a sign of confusion.

"You know, about the wedding?"

_The fuck?_ Jack's eyes went wide, and the captain had caught it. The red-headed woman gave her a knowing smirk. _Okay, I get it now. These two are serious. Does that mean they aren't open to certain possibilities? I mean, the boyscout seems like a family man... How's the princess gonna give him kids?_

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that," said Tali, concern creeping into both her voice and her almost unseen features. She grabbed onto all of her fiancé's fingers and started to fervently rub at them while she bounced her heels up and down against her barstool's foot-rest.

"I'm sure it's fine," said John, "I think they're just busy. I mean they're both admirals."

"Right," said Jane, "We might have time to swing by there."

Jack looked up at the woman, wondering if she might have forgotten about certain other stops she'd promised to make. Jane gave her a subtle nod.

"After we take care of one or two other things," added the captain.

"I..." Tali looked like she didn't know what to say, "Thank you, Sis. I might ask that, but maybe we should give it a little more time. _Keelah_, I just don't understand it. No 'yes,' 'no,' or even an 'over my cold dead body.' What in the human hell could be going on over there?"

Jane took that opportunity to remind the group that technically their missions were not over yet. "So... Have any of you checked your comms for messages yet?"

"No."

"No."

"Fuck no."

The captain bit back snarl and practiced her best turian growl.

"AAR right?" asked Jack.

Jane rolled her eyes and sighed.

"How long?" asked her brother, already bringing up Miranda's message.

"You've got half an hour," she replied.

...

Jane stood at her normal place at the head of the conference-room table, her arms crossed and her pose trying not to expose how drained she felt. She had had a little time to kill after meeting her brother in the lounge and had spent it playing with her daughter along side Garrus and Liara. She would give anything to get back to that, being almost tempted into bringing her daughter with her when it was time to leave. Janie would not know the pleasure of a military-style meeting for a few years at least, if her mothers could help it, and had been granted a reprieve in the hands of the very capable Yeoman Chambers.

A few extra chairs had been added to the table to accommodate their newest team members and, temporarily at least, Liara. One chair still remained empty though.

After a few minutes, the last member of their motley crew joined the assembly. The ship's pilot entered and began hobbling in to his position at Jane's left hand. The captain dropped her stern demeanor as soon as she laid eyes on him, moving to lend an assisting hand before she realized it. She crossing the distance quicker than she would have for almost anyone else. As much as he might have hated it from any other sentient being alive, she knew from their long professional association that he wouldn't protest any help from her. She was right.

Her arm under his shoulders, she dropped him off in his chair. "So, where are we at?" she asked the assembly.

John shifted his eyes from the longing gaze he shared with Tali to the dull stare he foisted on his sister. Slowly, he lifted his head from where it comfortably rested in his hand, propped up from the table by way of his elbow. "Miranda's sister, Oriana, is safe and will be relocated thanks to the help of concerned parties," the woman noticed he didn't mention that her benefactor was Cerberus, "The XO took leave to spend some more time with her, so I'll be submitting our official AAR, in the proper format, on her behalf," he finished.

The captain nodded, "It's your show."

"I lost count of the casualties- you took _my_ XO-"

"Forty-one killed, twelve wounded, three critically," supplied Samara, her new gold bar shining on her collar, "I believe the numbers were so high because the Eclipse mercenaries who were helping to smuggle the Ardat-Yakshi off the planet were called in as reinforcements."

"-And his visor," said John, "Thank you Samara. All were Eclipse. We learned a hard lesson about the kind of people that they recruit, by the way."

"This kind-hearted _bosh'tet_," Tali pointed to the male Shepard, "fell for some asari skank's sob-story and almost took one in the back of the head. I took care of her. Though I felt pretty bad about it because her ID chit said she was an organ donor. I guess they could still use some her teeth," Tali finished as bubbly and up-beat as ever, as if she were when discussing her favorite human pop-music.

Samara scowled at the engineer, to Tali's surprise. Perhaps the girl's time among some of the galaxy's most violent individuals, in some of the most dangerous situations conceivable, had jaded the young woman into a care-free attitude about death.

"Sorry, Justicar, Liara, I uh..." the quarian fumbled for words while twiddling her fingers, "I mean, uh, not all asari are skanks. Just her. I mean, not just her, I'm sure there are- probably- others. It's only that sometimes I get-"

The matriarch stalled her with a hand, the girl clearly missing the point of her displeasure. Tali nodded and leaned back in her chair, her head lowering.

"Right, so we have some valuable lessons-learned to go off of here?" asked Jane. The group nodded. "Moving on. So what about you, Garrus?"

The turian looked confused for a moment before regaining his composure. "Well, you, me, Mordin, and Liara fought our way through a burning building to recover Liara and the intel on the Shadow Broker's base. EDI?"

"_I am processing the information now_," the AI said, "_and should have results in approximately two hours_."

"Thank you EDI," said Garrus, "We never discovered the identity of Liara's would-be assassin, but the local civilian authorities are piecing that one together now. On a _completely_ unrelated note, we ran into a Spectre named Tela and I'm pretty sure she's evil."

"Okay. We'll kill her if it comes up again," she said matter-of-factly, "When will you have your mission's AAR submitted?"

"I... Uh, I can have it to you tonight?" he suggested.

"You're busy tonight," she replied.

"Oh. Okay. Tomorrow morning then?"

"That works," she said, "After breakfast."

"After breakfast," he agreed.

"Now onto future operations," said Jane, finally deciding to take her seat. She picked up a data pad and began scrolling through it, prompting many others in the room to do the same. "Kasumi and I will be attending a dinner party at the Hock estate. We're going to retrieve a piece of priceless property stolen from Sergeant Goto."

Mordin spoke up, "Collectors are the mission-focus. Item retrieval not within current mission parameters."

"True," said Jane, "But this was a condition of Kasumi's enlistment into our cause. Like curing the plague, Doctor."

The man nodded in silent understanding.

Jane continued, "Right now we have some time before our benefactors give us another lead on the collectors, and this is the perfect opportunity. While we're doing that, we've got two other missions to handle. Liara?"

"Thank you, Captain," said the asari, "The shadow broker has been a thorn in everyone's side for some time. He had even tried to abduct the twins' bodies and hand them off to the collectors-"

Tali gasped and reached across the table for John's hand.

"-And he still holds an interest in the twins and our campaign against the collectors. He is also holding an operative who helped me recover John and Jane's bodies. With any luck, we will be able to rescue him and kill the broker. Any intel in his base would be invaluable to us, possibly leading to the location of the collectors."

"Is this supposed to be done at the same time as the other mission?" asked Garrus.

"Yes," replied John, "The timing is critical to all three, and we can't wait to finish one before we begin the others. We've also got the personnel to meet their manpower requirements simultaneously. Hock's party is a simple infiltration. So is hitting the Shadow Broker base, with the addition of a hostage rescue and an assassination. Hitting Zorya will be the hardest. We're going to have to clear out an entire refinery owned by the Blue Suns."

"Bastards," grumbled Zaeed.

"I volunteer to take out the Shadow Broker," said Thane, "He has much to atone for, and so do I. I believe one's soul might be better served by killing him, rather than helping another man down the same path that I once traveled."

"The hell's that supposed to mean?!" barked the human mercenary.

"Nothing," said John, "That's perfect. We need someone who specializes at infiltration to go with Liara. Since it's also a hostage rescue, guess who else gets to go?"

"Oh, I don't know... It'll only be the fifteen time for me," said the only ex-cop in the room, giving everyone a smile and a subharmonic rumble of self-satisfaction, "Are you sure I'm qualified?"

"Imminently," said John. He made a few notes on his data-pad and glanced up at the man, seeing that he and Liara were sharing a brief but meaningful glance. "So it's settled. Jane and Kasumi will be taking an unmarked shuttle to Hock's party. Garrus, Liara, and Thane will hit the Broker base, also in a shuttle. Everyone else will be with me on Zorya, and we'll take the ship because we don't want the _Normandy_'s presence to compromise either of your missions."

...

"A moment, Commander."

Thinking himself the last one to leave the briefing room, John felt surprised to find Samara standing behind him as he got up to leave. Tali heard the woman beckoning and halted as well, taking a few steps to the man's side, concern and a hint of aggression betrayed in her posture.

"I mean your lifemate no harm, Lieutenant," she told the taller quarian before turning to John, "I only wish a moment of your time to speak about my mission."

"The Ardat-Yakshi?" he asked.

"Yes. I want to know that when the time comes- When I find her- I will be granted leave to collect my target."

John gave her a quick nod, "Of course."

"And if I require assistance?" she asked.

"We'll be there," he said, "I'll be there. I'll always do everything in my power to help one of my team."

"Thank you. I knew I could count on you." she said, giving the man a slight bow, "You are every bit as honorable as your reputation. More so, I believe, having finally met you in person. I know that your team means everything to you... Tell me, is your sister, the captain, on your team? Does she fall under your command?"

"I..." John glanced at Tali and then back to the woman, not sure why she was asking or what she was getting at. "No, her and I are the same rank. She commands the ship and I command the ground team."

The Spectre was under the impression that this had all been explained to her already. Certainly she had been given the rank and that should have been accompanied by a briefing on the chain of command. With a sudden start, he looked down at his upper arm, finding it locked inside an uncomfortably firm cage formed by three large quarian digits.

Tali's posture had gone rigid, as if suddenly confronted with wild and dangerous animal. One foot had moved imperceptibly away from the other, widening her stance. All her toes were splayed out, even the little ones at the edges of her heels. Most telling, the hand not currently blocking blood-flow to the majority of John's arm was slowly inching its way to the small of her back.

"What is it?" he whispered to her.

Tali wasn't paying much attention to him beyond a slow and steady tug on his person, not enough to pull him behind her yet, but enough to let him know she might be doing that shortly. She focused all her attention on the woman in front of her, giving her a glare sufficient to terrify a krogan into submission.

"What are you going to do to my big sister?" she asked the justicar with so much acid in her voice that John was surprised her face-plate didn't melt off.

"Nothing, yet," Samara answered smoothly, raising an eyebrow at the much younger woman's harsh, reactionary defense of her captain, "Everything I know about her is rumors and hearsay. And while her official record lists many ignoble acts, there is nothing worth taking action against. For the sake of the mission, I will do nothing until it is over. But if she commits serious enough crimes in the course of our time together, or if I ever do confirm her past actions, I may be forced to kill her when this is all over. I am sorry. It is the Justicar way. It is the code. Please forgive me."

"I don't think it will come to that," said John.

"Bring it, _bosh'tet_..." muttered Tali.

"You are both good people, and I do not wish to take Jane from you," the justicar said softly, looking to the empty seat at the head of the conference table, "I know that you two can use your influence as her siblings to guide her down the path of the righteous." With that, the woman walked past the pair and out into the adjoining hallway. John took his fiancé's hand and moved to follow the woman out when he abruptly stopped, a thought occurring to him.

"Does she really think you're our sister?" John asked her.

Tali shrugged. "She's been alive a thousand years and has probably seen a lot of families with cross-species adoption."

"Oh, messing with her is gonna be fun," said John, a sly grin on his face. He resumed his march out of the conference room, leading his quarian mate by the hand. "C'mon, Sis, let's go have some incest."

John could almost feel the girl rolling her eyes behind him as he pulled her down the corridor. "_Bosh'tet_."

**Please Review.**

**Fav and Follow if you liked it.**

**Thank you again to everyone who has done this. It is the only thanks I get.**

**Also check out my fem!Shep/Garrus-only fic, Warrior Ethos: Tabula Rasa.**

**Fair warning: There will be sex scenes in the next chapter. ****Why do people call them lemons, anyway?**

**P.S. Can anyone tell me why everyone puts an "!" in fem!Shep?**


	15. Welcome To The Machine

**Warning: Sex Scenes To Follow**

Chapter 15: Welcome To The Machine

Ashley Williams awoke to the sound of her beeping omni-tool. Struggling to open her eyes, she rolled over to see the wrist unit sitting at her nightstand, glowing will a tiny orange flicker like a candle's open flame. She closed her eyes, hoping that the noise would stop. It did, for a few seconds, before coming back in force. Crawling out of bed, she grabbed for the unit, being careful not to rouse her husband in the process. At least it would give her the opportunity to use the bathroom. Closing the door behind her, she activated the bright orange display, filling her surroundings with a jaundiced glow. She hoped that whoever wanted her attention was merely being inconsiderate rather than justified in calling her at three in the morning.

"Hello?" she asked in a low, groggy voice.

"_Hey Ash, it's Jane._"

Inconsiderate it was. "Skipper... What's up?" She leaned back on the toilet and rubbed her tired eyes with the back of her hand, debating on whether on not the Spectre would notice the sound of her peeing.

"_Not much. I... Just wanted to talk to you about some things. Religious stuff..._"

"More than happy to help, Captain," she whispered, "But can it wait until morning? It's zero three-hundred here."

"_Oh, sorry. I'll call you back in about five hours. But... One thing first?_"

"Yeah?" the operations sergeant asked, standing up without flushing, instead moving closer to the bathroom door.

"_I've done some pretty fucking terrible things in my life_," a sigh poured through the comm, "_How necessary is confession to salvation_?"

She paused at the door. "Pretty damn essential, Skip. And then you've got to make amends for your sins."

Williams released a long, drawn-out breath as she turned away from the door and took a seat on the edge of her hot-tub. She should have expected something like this. No one could know or presume to know how the almighty would judge them, but truly seeking forgiveness would put one's odds firmly in favor of salvation. Part of seeking that absolution meant accepting whatever penance was required. Based on some of the rumors she'd heard, that wasn't going to be an easy process for Jane, her brother, or any of them. There were some things she just didn't want to know about her old captain.

"_Amends? You mean, like, throw myself at the gallows_?" the Spectre asked.

"Well, you don't have to put it like that, but yeah," she replied softly.

"_No, that's exactly how I have to put it_."

"...God almighty, Jane. I'm not hearing this," she shook her head, wishing she could forget what the other woman had just said. "You need to stop talking right now. I'm not a chaplain yet. This conversation isn't covered by confessional privilege."

"_I haven't said anything yet_."

"You just told me that you've committed crimes that will earn you the death penalty," she said, grabbing a bath pillow and slowly sinking into the empty tub. She rolled onto her side, tucking her knees into her over-sized 'Buck FAaT' night-shirt, insulating her thighs against the cold marble. "They don't even give that for murder anymore, and you know that."

"_It was a figure of speech, nothing more_," came the calm reply.

"Right. I hope so," she said, "Listen, Skip, you need to confess in front of a real priest and then do whatever he or she says. They're going to tell you to turn yourself in. Come visit us before you do."

"_I know... It's not the penalty I'll face. It's... Garrus. Garrus and Johnny. And you and everyone else. I..._"

The comm went silent for so long that Ashley thought the other woman had hung up. She opened an eye and checked to see it her omni-tool's signal remained connected. It was, numbers ticking by as it kept recording the call duration. She brought her ear close to the wrist mounted device. She heard soft and steady breathing from the other end of the line.

Finally Jane spoke, "_I... I don't want you guys to know... Any of that. I don't want you to look at me any differently. I'll do it, though, I have to. It'll have to be after we hunt down the collectors, but it'll happen_."

"Good," she replied, "I might just be out of seminary by then. It will be my pleasure to receive your confession... It might even be the first sacrament I perform, who knows?"

"_Deal. And I'll be the one to swear you in when you get your commission. Right before they take mine away. So... How are you? How's your husband?_"

Ashley opened her eyes at the question, more awake than she had been only a second ago. She sat up and tossed the pillow aside. Climbing out of the tub, she approached the bathroom door.

"Sorry, Skip, but we'll have to talk later," she said, "I'm gonna go back to sleep. Call me tomorrow. And... Stop by some time, kay?"

"_Sure, Ash. G'night and... Thanks._"

Williams shut down her omni-tool, leaving her in total darkness. As quietly as she could, she palmed the door's invisible interface and stumbled into her bedroom. Both hands out in front of her, she took one silent step in front of the other, carefully setting her feet down so as to make as little noise as possible. When she felt her knees grazing the edge of the bed, she leaned over and placed her hand on her bed-sheet, bracing all her weight against it as she started to climb in.

Except it wasn't her bed-sheet. It was her husband's face.

"Nnn... What? Ash, what are you doing to me?" he asked sleepily, but otherwise with perfect clarity.

"Gahhh!" She quickly slapped her omni-tool, activating all the lights in the room at once. "_Madre de Dios_! Sorry honey! I'm so sorry..."

Breathlessly, she ran over to his medicine drawer and withdrew an injector, preloaded with a heavy dose of sedatives and pain killers. She turned to find him sitting up in bed, holding out a hand as if to stop her. She ignored it as she jumped into bed next to him, bringing the device to his neck.

"Wait!" he called out just as the cold metal touched his skin, "Just wait one second, please."

She hesitated, slowly lowering the injector, having yet to release its contents into the man's blood stream. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, I can handle it for a few minutes," he said softly, his voice already sounding strained, "I just want to talk to you for a bit, to hold you, to see you like this, not behind a fuzzy wall of meds..."

"Well... Okay," she said against her better judgment, "But the second it looks like you're having too much trouble, I'm sticking you. I'm not having your brains fry just so you can cuddle your wife."

"That's fine, Ash," he replied, "I don't think I'd be in any position to resist at that point, anyway."

He reached over and pulled her against his chest, wasting no time in slipping a hand under her shirt and cupping a breast. He leaned into her as she leaned against him, bringing his lips to the nape of her neck and planting a flurry of soft kisses against her bare skin. With his other hand, he began rubbing her nether regions with her grateful assistance. Once her accumulated moisture left both their hands warm and completely slick, he slipped first one finger then another inside her.

Ash was in heaven, for the moment. She felt terribly guilty at what she was doing, knowing how much this must hurt him, staying coherent like this, but he had wanted it too, after all. She rolled over and started kissing him anywhere she could, all over his thoroughly scarred body, eager for the opportunity to show her affection while he could still feel it. With any luck he might be able to plumb the depths of his drug-addled memory once he was again imprisoned in his own body. She enjoyed the feeling and the sensations of the man she fell in love with, and tried not to think about the pitiful creature he would be reduced to in the morning, unable to move or speak.

When there love-making had finished, both parties completely satisfied, her husband fell to the bed beside her in a sweaty, exhausted heap. He furrowed his brow and tightly shut his eyes to the world. His breath heaved and his muscles strained against each other. The sex couldn't have tired him out that much; she knew that he was still in great shape from his Alliance days. No, this was his personal hell encroaching on his psyche. Soon it would be unbearable, driving him well into insanity before the current from his misfiring neurons ultimately cooked the gray-matter between his ears. The sex had probably released enough endorphin to keep it at bay, but now, left with nothing more than the after-glow and a large wet-spot, he needed to be put under. She reached for the injector.

"Not yet," he hissed, "I've got another minute."

"Are you _really _sure?" she asked, bringing the device to his neck.

"Yes. Please," he almost begged, "I remember what you said about the twins. Not much, but I remember you said they were back."

"Yes?" she asked quickly.

"They were dead..." he replied through clenched teeth, "I know that. You told me you saw them fall into that planet. Someone brought them back. Maybe they can... fix me."

"Okay," she said quickly, "I'll check on that, I swear I will. Is there anything else?"

"Yeah," he struggled for words and air, "I love you."

"I love you, too," she choked out, just as she triggered the injector.

His head fell back to the pillow, eyes closed and a smile spreading across his slumbering face. Ashley wiped a few stray tears from her eyes and gathered the blankets from around there feet, pulling them up over them both and tucking him in. She gave him a quick kiss on the lips and rolled over just before turning off the lights and falling back to sleep.

...

Jane stepped out of her cabin's bathroom and groaned at the sight before her.

"See, wasn't that better?" asked Kelly.

The perky yeoman obscured the doorway to the rest of her cabin, preventing any attempt at escape from her presence. Somehow she'd known why her captain had retreated from where the rest of the group clustered about in the living-room area. Miss Chambers was smarter than she let on. Of that, Jane felt certain.

Kelly was standing so close to the door when it opened that she may have been listening in the whole time. The Spectre doubted it, but the mere thought was enough to set her on edge.

"Move," grumbled Jane. When the girl stepped aside, the captain made her way back down to the couch. She took a seat next to her boyfriend and pulled Janie into her lap, Liara taking a seat on her opposite side. "No it wasn't any better. She didn't tell me anything I didn't already know."

"But hearing her say it helped you to come to some conclusions?" ventured the younger woman.

"It did," she admitted.

"Well then that's good, right?" she asked.

"No. Yes," she sighed, "Eh, whatever. EDI, is anyone in Johnny's room right now?"

"_No captain. That room is currently vacant_."

She turned to the mother of her child, "Hey, Liara, can you play with Janie for about and hour, maybe two, in John's room? I need some alone time. I'll call you when I'm done."

The asari nodded, "Absolutely, Jane." She collected the toddler into her arms, Kelly and a certain turian trailing behind her.

"Whoa, not you, big boy," she called after them.

Garrus turned around while the others kept walking, a 'Who me?' look on his face and a talon pointing to his chest.

She smiled and nodded, moving one arm to drape across the backrest of the couch, patting the seat next to her with a free hand.

"But you said you want to be-"

"I know what I said, Skully! Now get over here," she demanded.

Finally getting the picture, he almost tripped over himself trying to do his best seductive walk, causing the Spectre to giggle. She tried to hide it behind a hand, but failed miserably. He noticed her reaction, but recovered quickly and joined her on the couch, proffering her a wide smile. He tried his best to hide his subharmonic tones of embarrassment, but that was something Jane could readily pick up on at this point. Somehow it only made him that much more adorable. She leaned in and kissed him gently on a mandible.

"Where were _you_?" she asked him, rubbing his fringe from behind with one hand, stroking the thin cloth shirt over his chest with the other.

"What?" he asked, "What do you mean? I was right over there." He pointed to the stairs.

"No, not that," she replied, "All those years after we met. You should have stayed with me. You should have _been_ there."

She looked away for a second, then leaned her head against his chest, holding herself tight against him.

"Jane, I had to join the military."

"I know that, Skully," she said, gripping at his shoulder, "Do you have to be so damn literal all the time?"

"I hadn't really thought about it. I guess I could try not to-"

A burst of dulcet laughter cut him off. Still clinging to him, she planted another kiss on his face, this time catching him right in the middle of his flexible, beak-like lips.

"I was just was just day-dreaming about some fantasy world where we grew up together, is all. You, me, and Johnny," the Spectre said. She wiped a few errant drops of moisture from her eyes. It wasn't from sadness, unless one counted the strange sense of loss she felt for a world that never was. Most of the well-spring of emotions came from the sheer happiness at the thought, however.

"I think you would have made a big difference, if you'd been there," she continued, "That's all. I'm glad I have you now, though."

He gave her a kiss this time, which she returned in a big way. When she started to pull away, He moved a hand up her neck, running his talons through her hair, stopping at the back of her head. She smiled as he deepened the kiss, allowing him full access to her mouth with his deceptively long tongue. It wasn't something turians were used to, she didn't think, but he'd picked up on the concept rather quickly and seemed to really enjoy it.

Garrus broke off the kiss and stood up, taking her hand in his. Almost as soon as she found her footing, the turian latched his talons around her waste and threw her to the bed. She gave him her best 'come hither' smile, feeling once again stunned and aroused by his perpetual aggressiveness in the bedroom.

...

"And I think that's it for tonight," said Tali, turning from her panel in engineering, "The new armor, weapons, and engine upgrades are all checking out. We should be fine to depart tomorrow morning."

"Woo-hoo, Ma'am!" shouted Lia, "I think we make a great team."

"You do good work," replied the chief engineer, "and not just compared to other species."

"Thank you, Ma'am, I-" she cut herself off mid sentence, eyes growing bright as she looked at something just behind her fellow quarian.

Tali slowly turned behind her, relieved to see her _inszel_ walking up behind her. She held out a hand for him, which he wrapped in his five delicate fingers. He nodded first to Tali and then to Lia.

"Lieutenant Zorah, Sergeant Vael, how are things?" he asked.

"Sir, things are going great!" the younger quarian gushed before Tali could comment, "We just did _all_ the pre-flight tests of the new upgrades, and they're perfect. First we did the engine output efficiency..."

...

Too polite to interrupt the girl, and noticing his fiancé happily nodding along like a teacher watching her star pupil give a presentation before a large assembly, John simply smiled and tried not to zone-out too much. After the first few minutes, however, his boredom and impatience began to outweigh his kindness. He reached over and placed a firm hand on the girl's shoulder, gently squeezing when it became obvious that the mere physical contact wouldn't be enough to break her out of her tech-induced trance.

"I get it," he said, "Thank you for the great job you've been doing here," he turned to Tali, "both of you."

"I... Sorry, Sir, babbling," Lia said quickly. When John withdrew his hand, she appeared disappointed, following the appendage's retreat with her eyes. "Thank you so much. Hearing I've done a good job means a lot to me, especially coming from you. So, um, how was your day?"

"Terrific, Lia, terrific," he replied, "And I'm sure Jane will be ecstatic to hear about getting the test done early. She's got a party she doesn't want to be late for." He stepped to Tali's side and brought an arm around her shoulder, pulling her in close and starting to guide her out of engineering.

"Um, bye..." Lia softly called after them, slowly waving a hand and sounding dejected.

"Do you think your sister will let me do some last minute sightseeing on Illium tomorrow?" Tali asked him as they walked away, "Because Lia wanted to take me around and show me some places. She and some of the crew got to look around while we were having dinner and I figured that since she and I finished the pre-flight shake-down tonight, it would be okay and not at all bothersome, so if you could talk to her then maybe-"

"Definitely," he interrupted, palming open the elevator door and stepping inside with Tali, "That's the plan. We were thinking of doing a group lunch. Miranda has to finish up with the contractors that morning, so you and Lia are more than welcome to do your own thing until about noon."

"Thank you so much, John," she replied as the stepped out of the elevator and onto deck one.

"Ready for bed?" he asked her as they stepped inside their cabin.

She halted abruptly, looking like she wanted to say something. He noticed his fiancé examining her fingers as they intertwined and danced, like she was wont to do whenever she felt nervous about something. That in itself was not an uncommon occurrence; it was both one of her most common behaviors and one of her most endearing. Coupled with that, however, she rapidly bounced on her toes, bringing her heal up about a centimeter and then back down roughly twice every second.

"Sooo... I- I've adapted to you, um, pretty well by now... Don't you think?" she asked cautiously, gazing up at him with her big, gorgeous, glowing eyes.

"Yeah..." he replied, not sure where she was going with this. Could it be another make-out session sans mask? He could definitely get into that, although just the thought of it flooded him with nervous adrenaline. He had only recently become reacclimatized to the idea of his fiancé as an endearing best friend-turned-lifemate. He wasn't sure he was ready to meet the goddess behind the mask again.

"Well..." she said slowly, examining her toes, "I've... I've taken some supplements and immuno-boosters, as well as a few antibiotics- just to be safe," she started bouncing even more furiously now, reaching for his fingers to massage them as she spoke, "So, um, this would be a good time, you know... Considering that we have a few days travel to our next destination, we could, um well..." She trailed off, mumbling something that may have been khelish, English, or something else entirely.

"Well what?" he asked, genuinely curious as to what she was getting at, wondering what all this build-up was about.

"Will you have sex with me?" she blurted out, clenching his fingers tightly as she asked, "Please?"

John had no clue what to say to that. He wasn't sure if she meant the typical over-the-suit activity that they'd been doing every night before this or something more. The answer to that hit him in a flash. If it had been the same thing they had always done, she wouldn't have bothered asking. She meant to try the real thing.

"Okay," he replied, although a part of him was _still_ unsure if they were both talking about the same thing. He wanted to ask for further clarification, but decided against it on the grounds that he didn't want to offend her. Finally he chose a more neutral, but _very_ important, way of eliciting information. "But only if it's safe. I mean _really_ safe. Is it?"

"Yes! Of course! Fantastic!" she all but screamed, bouncing into him hard enough to stagger him, catching the man in a sturdy bear-hug. "I promise it will be safe and I will be perfectly fine in a day or two. Our bodies are adapting to each other."

Slapping the door controls, the eager young lady pulled him into their room and didn't bother stopping until she reached the bed. With a gentle push, she sat John down on the mess of unmade blankets. Starting her strip-tease by swaying her hips side to side, she undid the first of a series of clasps affixing her _realk_ to her suit. One by one they came off, and in seconds she had the garment in hand. Quickly folding it, she tossed it behind her in the direction of their couch, watching as it landed on Liara's head.

"Eeep!" Tali squealed, instinctively leaping onto John's lap and knocking the wind out of him.

"Goddess, I'm sorry-"

"Liara! What in the h-" Tali paused when she noticed two other pairs of eyes on her, those of yeoman Chambers and Jane's daughter, "Ah, um, what are you guys _doing_ here?" she asked, managing to sound both embarrassed and perturbed at the same time.

"The captain said we could use this room to play with Janie in," said the yeoman.

"Well why would...?" the engineer began, but she wasn't stupid. She turned up her audio pick-ups, focusing the sensors into a tight beam at the wall they shared with Jane and Garrus. She had her answer. "Right, well, okay then."

"You know, there's a library in the starboard observation lounge," said John, "I think it has some real paper-pulp children's books. And our Justicar, Samara. It's never too early to start my niece on biotic training, is it?"

"I think I've got that covered, Nee," replied Liara, "I may only be a hundred and eight, but I'm very competent."

Kelly leaned in to whisper to the woman. Neither John nor Tali could tell what was being said, but the asari's eyes widened slightly with dawning understanding.

"Well, I'm sure the justicar has picked up a thing or two that even I can benefit from learning," Liara admitted, "We'll head down there right now."

Gathering up Janie in her arms, Liara took a couple of steps toward the commander and his engineer, giving the pair a sly smile. Leaning into the quarian, she placed and hand on her shoulder and whispered, "Have fun."

Tali had been stroking her soon-to-be niece's tendrils, much to the child's delight, when Liara's soft words met her ears. She cocked her head to the side and smiled back at her. Until seeing the daughter that the asari shared with Jane, the quarian would never have guessed that she held no interest in John. Hearing those words almost made it official. She felt so stupid for always having been on guard against the non-existent advances of the other woman. She pulled both her former 'competition' and her niece into an embrace.

"Oh, I will," she whispered back.

On her way out the door with Liara and Janie, Kelly turned back briefly. "No _realk_, nothing but a black cat-suit and some tubes... You look pretty damn sexy like that."

...

"Where were we?" asked Tali as she made her way to the edge of the bed.

John remained seated, still a little nervous, not knowing what to expect.

"Oh, right, I remember," said the quarian.

She brought her hands to her mask, removing it after only a second or two. Seeing his fiancé's unmasked face still shocked the Spectre, despite knowing what to expect. Her visor off, she gave him a gleaming, predatory smile. After another few seconds, her entire helm was in her hand, followed by a cascade of flowing, wavy black hair that reached past her shoulder blades. She quickly inserted a pair off translators into her ears.

Speechless, but still cognizant of what he was supposed to do next, John inched himself closer to her until his head was within centimeters of her bust. A second later, he found himself on his back, the victim of a firm shove from his quarian lover.

"I'm not done yet," she scolded him with a wagging finger, "Now take off your shirt."

He did exactly as she had instructed, taking a deep breath and actually tasting nervousness as he exhaled. She was serious. She was about to go all the way, or pretty damn close to it. At this point, he'd used up his entire allotment of assertive behavior with his unmasked fiancé. He could only hope that she was fine with having a human who could do nothing more than lay there in bad, gaping at her in awe.

As it happened, it seemed she _was_ just fine with that. Standing at the foot of the bed, she smiled at his new-found compliance. He would get used to her appearance eventually, so she would have only a limited amount of time to enjoy it. She turned her back to him, facing the door to their cabin. One by one, she undid the straps encircling her waist. With each one she unclasped, she glanced over her shoulder and smiled, as if hoping to gauge his reaction.

Once all her belts were completely removed, she brought a hand to the back of her neck, triggering the mechanical release of the primary suit seal running the length of her back. Separating it slowly to build the anticipation, she paused and again glanced over her shoulder just as the seal slipped passed the half-way point, exposing quite a bit of bare skin. She winked and chuckled to herself, making it obvious to him that she wore no undergarments around her chest like a human woman or an asari might.

She continued to separate the seal, slowly pulling her suit apart, until it would go no further. A pale violet-blue 'V' of skin remained, starting just above her buttocks and expanding to expose the whole of her back. She first slipped off one shoulder of her suit, then the other, pulling both of her arms out of her sleeves in turn. When she had finished, the topless quarian let the upper half of her suit dangle from her hips, falling about her legs like a skirt.

John mentally fought against hyperventilating as she started to turn to him, not that his cybernetics would have allowed it. His lungs seemed determined to push the envelope anyway. Although possessed of a definite feminine form, she was as lean as could be without passing that disquieting median between fit and obsessive. He knew that all the time she spent in the gym would give her stamina for days, but it might have also been responsible for her diminutive bust. He didn't care one bit though. Small and perky were fine by him. Besides, she was _far_ too perfect already. He was glad there was at least one thing, no matter how insignificant, that brought this elven goddess down to the realm of mortal men.

She looked over her shoulder at him as she turned, offering him a smile with crippling levels of cuteness. Seeing those gorgeous glowing eyes unmasked for the second time in his life left him with nothing else to focus on. Until she turned all the way around to face him.

At first, John didn't know what to think. Something wasn't right. Something was very much out of place, in fact. Out of the periphery of his vision, he could see something very unusual and bulging. Tearing his eyes from hers to inspect what the issue was, secretly hoping it wasn't some kind of alien deformity, he let his gaze linger over her midsection.

"Gah-!" he choked out, gasping, almost swallowing his tongue, and forgetting to breath all at the same time. Already tense, his arms and legs locked up, fingers digging deep into blankets and holding on for dear life.

Tali cocked her head to the side, her lips barely parted in an expression of concern. Hesitating only an instant, she pounced on him.

"John?!" she yelled, landing atop the human, "Are you okay? Are you choking? Can you breath? What's wrong? What did I do?" In a flash she rolled off him and held his upper body from behind. She reached around to his stomach, interlacing her fingers together, ready to compress his diaphragm and dislodge whatever had caught in his throat. At the last possible second, John managed to hold up a hand.

"Wait!" he yelled, "Wait, I'm fine. Just. Something. I... Wow..."

The eminent fear of projectile vomiting at the hands of an over-eager fiancé subsiding, the human began to notice a pair of smooth, hot somethings pressing into his back and felt glad he didn't have to look at them at the moment.

He held onto her arms where they pressed together against his chest, effectively locking the woman in place against him. It was then that he got his first-ever look at her bare arms and began to feel the heat radiating off them and into his chest. As with every millimeter of skin he'd explored on her neck and face, these too were as smooth as silk. Like what he had seen before, the backs of her arms had a faint pattern of polygonal freckles, slightly darker than the rest of her very even complexion, extending up past her elbows.

"So, uh, you... Um..." He really tried to form a sentence, but nothing could coalesce before making its way out of his brain and exiting his mouth. Deciding that Tali would be smart enough to make sense of his word-soup anyway, he pressed on. "Sports bra? I mean. Tight. Must be... tight? 'Cause you... D-Cup? Big."

"You're not making much sense, you know that?" She said.

He nodded at that, then started making contented noises as she kissed him along his neck. She moved to his ear, running her tongue along its outside edge, filling it with her hot breath, before stopping at his earlobe and taking it into her mouth. She peppeed it with gentle nips from her sharp canines.

She brought her lips to his ear, so close they brushed against it. "What's big?" she asked in a breathy whisper, "I'll bet I know..."

A chill went up John's spine, turning into a full blown shiver as she pried her hand out of his grip and slowly started massaging his confined member. Already extremely tight, his pants shrunk another two sizes at her touch. _Ugh..._ _This is going to be a _very_ short ride._

"Um. Yes. That," mumbled John, "But... I was talking about, well, uh, your breasts." he sighed, "They're a _lot_ bigger than I thought they'd be."

"Oh." She pulled away from him, leaving his back cold and exposed without her war skin pressing against him. "I'm sorry about that. I really didn't mean to get your hopes up."

John made a sound somewhere between a scoff and a gulp. He turned to look behind him just long enough to see her holding her twin assets and squeezing, one in each hand. _Damn, she's more human than human... _He looked away quickly, praying the night would not to end before it began.

"I mean, do human males not find larger ones more attractive?" she asked, "I've heard Joker commenting on some of the female crew. He seems to prefer larger ones. And Jane complains about how she thinks hers are too small... I don't think quarian men seem to care much either way, but I don't like them cause I could probably run faster without them and they get in the way sometimes, plus they get all squished behind the suit and... and... John?"

"Huh?" he asked, still staring at his model collection in an effort to maintain composure.

"I'm babbling and you haven't stopped me yet," she said, "What's wrong? Are they _that_ bad? I could go wrap them in something if you want."

"Oh, no! No, no, no..." he replied, vigorously shaking his head, "Don't do that. I like them. A lot."

"Good!" she squealed, moving in against him, rubbing her oh-so-firm nipples against his back.

"Huuuuhhh-uh..." he shuddered, breathing in the sweet cinnamon scent of the woman as her upper body gyrated against him, churning the air around them. He continued to explain, "Well, I just hadn't expected such a surprise. They seemed so much smaller, you know, looking at your suit. They really do set off the whole... Tali-Package."

"Of course they seemed smaller," she said softly, pulling him in close and reaching down to unzip his pants, "They're compressed behind a tight suit all the time, one that's over a centimeter thick. You don't want me all bouncy in combat, do you?"

She emphasized her remarks by cheerfully bouncing up and down against his back, after which she worked his imprisoned member free. She grasped it like it was the one thing she'd been waiting for in her entire life, firmly stroking it up and down, perhaps a little too hard for John's tastes. He forgave her for her inexperience and unbridled enthusiasm. He realized that this was the first time her hands had touched him like that. The way she would stop at odd intervals to simply stare at his manhood, grazing it gently with her fingertips, told him that she realized it too.

Fighting the good fight against over-stimulation, and steadily losing ground, a hand-job was not something John needed at the moment. He stopped her mid-stroke, holding her over-zealous hand in his.

"You're right," Tali chuckled, "that's enough foreplay. And I can see you don't need it."

With that, she pulled away from him and fell back on her behind. When John felt her suited toes brush against his bare back, and then press into him for support, he didn't need to look behind him to figure out what was going on. Nevertheless, he glanced behind him just in time to see the engineer lifting her butt off the bed and pushing her suit past her ample hips, down to the tops of her boots.

"Hurry up and take your pants off," she said, reaching down to unbuckle her greaves.

Blinking quickly and thinking about small-unit tactics and composite risk management to clear his mind of the soft, hairless, and glistening nether-region he had glimpsed, he started to remove his trousers as quickly as his hands would allow. He wasn't going to last much longer at this rate. _I hope she's okay with only one good thrust..._

Naked from the waist up _and_ down, he turned to face her right as she was removing her last boot, giving John a view of her exposed feet and toes. That seized his attention rather quickly, a good thing too, given his desire to focus on anything that might help maintain his staying power.

"You like my toes?" she asked, watching him eye the digits.

"Yeah, and the claws are kinda cool too," he said, lifting one of her feet and running a pair of fingers up and down its arch.

_Big mistake._

Like a shot, she slashed out with her pair of five-centimeter claws, narrowly missing his left bicep and chest. "That tickles!" she screamed.

If he had not dodged backwards so suddenly, or if he had tried to block the unintentional blow, he would be down at least three doses of medi-gel and looking at somewhere between fifty and a hundred stitches.

"Eeep! I'm so sorry, John! It was so ticklish and I'd never been touched there! I didn't mean it, I... You're not hurt are you? I'll clip them, I swear! They're getting too long anyway, and I could blunt them, file them down or something, I-"

"It's okay, Tals," he quickly said, moving up along side her.

Her hands had been moving as fast as her mouth had been, but were now clasped in his. He didn't know how she did it, but somehow his quarian fiancé always found a way to do something comically endearing. It was plenty enough to set his head straight and remind him of why he fell in love with her. He could do without the potential bodily harm, but he would take what he could get at this point. He leaned in for a kiss, which she gladly returned. After a almost a minute of glorious lip-locking, she pulled away.

"I didn't ruin the mood again, did I?" she asked in all sincerity, looking up at him with a raised brow and wide eyes, gently biting at her lower lip.

"No, you didn't," he said, smiling.

She smiled back, "Do you want to, um, you know? Now?"

"You mean, you're ready?" he asked her, "Just like that?"

She leaned in to renew their kiss. As their lips made contact, she ran her hand along his arm, ending at his fingertips. Taking his hand in hers, she brought it between her extremely damp thighs. Pressing and rubbing his fingers against her, without quite enough pressure to enter her yet, served to answer his question. Another couple of seconds passed before her back arched violently as she let loose a powerful scream, devolving slowly into a low moan. John's hand came back very wet with hot fluid. Bringing his fingers to his lips, he breathed deeply, taking in her scent. Deciding it couldn't hurt too much, and unable to resist anyway, he took a few experimental licks.

"I've been ready for the last two years," she said through heavy breaths, "Well, that's one for me." She noticed his tongue as it glazed over his fingers, "You know, John, assuming that doesn't kill you, I think that's _really_ sexy. How do... Um, you know, uh, taste?"

"About as good as you look," he replied.

She cocked an eyebrow and playfully smacked his shoulder. "I hope that's a compliment, _bosh'tet_. Can you, um..." she trailed off, looking away, a guilty expression crossing her face.

"What?" he asked.

"_Suck_ them for me? Please?"

_She looks so cute when she begs._ He did as he was asked, taking each finger into his mouth and thoroughly cleaning it before moving onto the next, earning a series of breathy shudders from the woman as she held herself tight against him. He fixed her with a needy gaze, one she met with one of her own, gradually bringing her face within centimeters of his hand while he worked. She took his other hand and slowly brought it between her thighs again, quickly enrapturing herself for a second time that night, all the while never breaking eye-contact with him.

"Sorry... I got your other hand all dirty," she said softly, actually managing to look and sound ashamed.

John honestly couldn't tell if her apology was serious or not. At this point though, he could hardly muster the brain-power to care.

"So, um, are _you_ ready yet?" she asked nervously.

John looked down at his painfully impatient erection then back to her. He almost wanted to say 'no' so he could take a minute to calm down.

"Yeah."

"Good!" she squeaked, roughly pushing him down on the bed, throwing one leg over his hips to straddle him. She lowered her heated core over his throbbing manhood, pressing her dripping slit against him, she started rubbing herself up and down its length.

Watching her move up and down above him, seeing her ample breasts swinging centimeters from his face, sometimes brushing his lips and brow with her nipples, John wanted nothing more in the world than to reach up and take one of Tali's bosoms into his mouth and lavish it for everything he was worth. But he couldn't. Not only was it not a good idea, given his desire to actually enter his fiance at some point that night, but the way she pressed down on him with locked elbows precluded even the most basic of movements. Frustrated and feeling the pressure inside build, he threw his hands to her hips, grabbing at them tightly to stop her movement.

That was possibly the worst thing her could have done in that situation. Enthralled with the feeling of his firm hands against her, she redoubled her efforts, pressing her wet entrance down onto his member even harder, just barely breaching her folds with his girth. Sinking her talon-like claws deep into their bed for added purchase, she grunted and growled with pleasure, making noises that were the complete opposite of anything lady-like. To John it sounded like two professional women's tennis players getting into a bare-knuckle boxing match with a mountain-lion.

Fortunately for him, that mental image sufficed to keep his roaring libido at bay for another few precious moments. Tali had no such issues, though. With a deafening scream that John had come to recognize and adore, she clenched up again, digging her fingers into her fiancé's biceps and further shredding their bed.

"Uhhh... Okay..." A sheen of sweat coated the quarian, dripping from her brow and thighs, pooling between her legs and mingling with the ample fluids that had already collected on the Spectre. She looked beat. "I... Uh, Okay... Three for me... You really need to try this," she said, giving him a weak but genuine smile.

Raising her hips up off John's about a third of a meter, a long trail of fluid still connecting them, she leaned down to share a kiss with him, her raven hair falling around his head. Lips still joined, she wrapped her fingers around his manhood as much as she could and aligned it with her entrance, experimentally pushed down just a bit. They both gasped into each others' mouths at the feeling.

She pulled her lips a few millimeters away from his, "I think this is gonna hurt, so, um, don't move, and let me do all the work, okay?"

"Okay," he slowly replied, entranced by the bright orbs that hung above him. Like the last time, her hair flowed around him like a waterfall, shutting out all the light around them except for what her eyes supplied. Behind her opaque locks, those eyes were simply blinding.

It took a moment for John to register what she had said. _It's going to hurt? Me, her, or both of us? I hope it isn't too painful._

He figured it out as she began to lower herself onto him, forcing another gasp from his lips and an intense groan from hers. It felt like he was about to break from the pleasure of the overwhelming tightness, heat, and moisture surrounding him. She continued pressing herself down, centimeter by centimeter, slowly engulfing him into her unyielding yet somehow stretching canal.

She continued down, and it became abundantly clear to John that he was about to burst inside her. Her deepening moans and occasional grunts continued, encouraging his enjoyment rather than abating it. There would be deep bruises across his arms and chest from where she clung to him, holding on like a woman about to fall from a cliff. Every few seconds she had to find fresh sections of the bed to dig in with her clawed toes, unable to hold on once she gouged out the mattress too deeply.

Finally, she bottomed out against him with nothing left to take in, surprising because John had been absolutely sure he had no place left to go when he had only been about half-way in. He felt doubly surprised when, instead of slowly riding back off him, she pressed into him even further, forcing him to go even deeper into her. She let out a painful-sounding moan as she pushed against him, biting her lip so hard that blood trickled from her punctured skin. Already tighter than any woman he could remember, or thought was even possible, John's hips bucked sharply as she clenched around him like a vice. He released inside her, unable to even hear his own groan of pleasure against the quarian's sudden, passionate, ear-splitting screech that sounded only centimeters from his ear. After his initial release, he tried to force himself to fully empty inside her, but it was a loss; she was far to tight to for that. When he did pull out, there would be a spectacular mess.

"Uhhh... Ancestors, that was..." Tali was at a loss for words. She collapsed in a filthy, sweaty heap against him.

John, on the other hand, felt mortified. It was true, it had been a while, but he hadn't even lasted half a minute. Not only did he feel bad for not satisfying his fiancé, but he felt bad for giving one half of the human race a bad name. _I can see it now. 'Minute-man Spectre causes intergalactic incident. Human Alliance formally apologizes to Migrant Fleet for poor performance. Reparations to follow anti-climactic joint summit.'_

"I... I could die of infection tomorrow, and that... that was _totally_ worth it..." Tali breathed deeply, trying to slow her heaving gasps, her chest and breasts expanding against him. "_Keelah_, John, you feel really hot. I want to move, but I can't... My... My _everything_ is numb. I would get you a towel, but, yeah, you... you _wrecked_ me."

"Oh, well, it's the thought that counts," he said with a smile.

"Oh, _der'vak_, I'm such a _det'kazuat_, I am _so_ sorry," Tali almost cried, her expression showing both sadness and shame, perhaps misunderstanding what John meant about wanting to get him a towel. She ran her fingers through her hair, brushing it away from her face and behind her pointed ears. Blood gently dripped from her lips and chin, falling the two centimeters that separated her mouth from his. "I... I was selfish and did it again, I'm sorry, I... Unless- did you? Did you get off too? Maybe?"

"God yes, Tali. You better believe it. You were fantastic." They shared another kiss. Tasting blood, he discretely wiped the red fluid from around his lips and cheek.

"Thank you, you say the sweetest things. Was that enough for you?" she asked, "Do you need to go again?"

He shook his head, giving her his best poker-face.

"Even better," she kissed him again, "Because I'm absolutely spent. I don't think I could move a muscle even if there was a hull breach. I guess I could just roll over and you could use me. Try to be gentle."

"Really, I'm good." he said, "But parts of me are cold and wet and other parts are blazing hot, so... I think I'll get us that towel."

"Okay, goo- Gah!" she yelled as he tried to move her off him.

John grunted as well, unable to move her without severely over-stimulating himself.

"Sorry, John, but I think I'm really sensitive down there right now," she moaned.

"Yeah, me too," he said, "Maybe if I pulled out a little slower... Mmmm!"

"Yaaahhh!" she yelled, "No... I don't think that's going to work, either. We may be having some kind of mild allergic reaction to each other. Does it hurt? Is it swollen?"

John chuckled, biting back a stupid joke, "No, it's fine, just really sensitive... In an _overly good_ way, you know? You?"

"Yeah, the same," she said.

"So... We're stuck?" he asked.

"I think so."

"You think we should call-"

"No," she brusquely cut him off, "Just wait for it to go down."

"With you, that might take a while."

"Fine. I'm going to sleep," she said, "You stay on the bottom and don't move."

John grunted and kissed her on the forehead. She gave him a contented smile and shut her eyes, resting her cheek against his. That had been, by far, the absolute most awkward _and incredible_ sex he'd ever had. He couldn't even remember what other women were supposed to look and feel like. Not only was a night with Tali simply wonderful in its own right, but it also served to lessen his anxiety at seeing the stunning beauty behind the engineer's clothing. Nothing brought a couple onto equal footing like thirty seconds of embarrassing grunts, mutual premature ejaculation, and getting stuck together at the crotch in a puddle of slime.

...

Another thirty minutes passed before Tali awoke and managed to carefully separate herself from her _inszel_. True to her word, though still incredibly sore and moving gingerly, she had immediately gone to fetch John that towel from the bathroom. Rather than accepting it, he had concluded that the time for a simple rub-down had long since passed. He elected to give the quarian her first shower since leaving the fleet, which she had agreed to on the condition that any intimacy be limited to acts of cleaning and tender kisses.

"So, not as much slobber this time?" The engineer asked, taking her time in drying off by the bed.

"No, not as much," he answered, "you're definitely improving." He sat on the edge of the bed, pulling at the bits and chunks of dislocated synthetic mattress stuffing, shoving them into the half-dozen gouges she had ripped into the bed. "But you might want to wear you boots next time."

"Right, sorry," she apologized sheepishly. "I can help you make the bed his time."

"This time?" he asked. "No other times?"

"I'm the _woman_, John. You don't expect _me_ to keep house, do you?" She asked, sitting down on the bed next to him. He looked confused. Perhaps humans had less defined gender rolls than quarians? She was a traditionalist, yes, but that didn't mean she thought of herself as narrow-minded. A lot had changed since the exodus and the need for all quarians to work outside the 'home' and she accepted that, to a degree. _Ah, now those were the Good Old Days..._

John looked away and mumbled something unheard before pulling her down to lay next to him.

"I have been meaning to talk to you about that," she continued, looking around the cluttered room, "I read a few things about how humans are supposed to clean up... folding laundry before putting it away, making the bed, keeping your desks clear. I don't think you're very good at it. Did you not get..." Tali paused in the middle of her sentence, allowing herself to trail off.

Once again, her mouth had been moving faster than her brain. She was about to wonder aloud if his father had taught him anything at all about keeping a home clean and tidy when it came to her that the man had died when John was still young. Tali could sympathize, in a way, mostly because her own father just wasn't around very much. It seemed like her less-than-subtle prodding had touched a nerve.

"What's the matter?" she asked, hoping to make amends for her inconsiderate stammering. She ran her fingers through his soft, short-cropped hair, so much like her own, down to the same color, even. He was a totally different species, with completely opposite amino-acid chiralty, from a world almost a hundred-thousand light-years away, and she had something more in common with him than his own flesh and blood. Awed at that thought, she brought her lips up to his forehead and gently planted a kiss there.

"Meh, it's nothing, really," he said, running his fingers up and down the curved center of her back, still slippery with light sheen of water from the shower. "We can talk about it later."

She shivered at his touch, soft mewling noises passing through slightly parted lips. Half of her wanted to get lost in the sensation, to encourage him even further, but the more sensible half knew she would need to get back into her suit as soon as possible. Another bout of intense sex would not help that in the slightest, regardless of her limited staying power. She reached behind her and brought his hand from her back, pulling it tight against her chest and holding it there.

She gasped as John simply palmed a breast and started rubbing it softly while gently pinching a nipple between a thumb and forefinger. Biting her already sore lip, she knew she was doing a poor job of hiding the fact that she enjoyed it. "_Keelah_... You... Uh... Dirty _bosh'tet_."

Perhaps sensing the inevitable, he sighed to himself, halting his attempts at further arousal. Instead he contented himself with tracing the lowest _faysakt_ below her sternum, just above her breasts, following the dark line as it arched over smoothly over each bosom and dipped down into her cleavage. Not understanding much about quarian physiology or erogenous zones, excepting those they held in common with human females, he couldn't have known that what he did felt a hell of a lot better than crudely groping at her tits.

She bit her lip even harder, tasting her own blood once again. The reopened wound hurt enough to force her out of the sexual stupor that her bondmate had unknowingly placed her in. She rocketed off the bed and ran her tongue across her lip, smearing the metallic tasting fluid. It left thin streaks of dry crimson along her chin.

"Sorry, John, I'm so sorry, but, um... If you keep this up, uh... I'll... I'll be forced to take you again," she said, her voice sounding apologetic and exasperated at the same time. She flexed her fingers, balling them into fists and relaxing them, then started to search about the room for wherever she had tossed her suit.

"And?" he asked, smirking.

"And I've already been out of my suit for longer than I should have been," she replied. Finding it, she stepped into the leggings, pulling it up over her hips. She sat down on the bed with her back to her human, slipped her arms inside, and waited.

"Well, we don't want you to get too sick or we might have to wait a little longer before the next time," he said.

"Exactly," she enunciated slowly, sporting a sultry grin.

He waited a few seconds, apparently trying to figure out why she was just sitting there with her back to him, not moving or saying anything.

Tali made sure John couldn't see the broad smile on her face when he finally figured it out, zipping up her suit's primary seal for her. After that, he followed her about the room, helping her reattach the various parts and straps as she found them. He visor and helm had stayed safely atop their night-stand, but some of the other pieces had made it as far as his office nook. Her left boot had even knocked his hamster cage askew, placing the skittish creature in danger of running free about the cabin.

Her gear collected, she sat up in bed, her back to the headboard, and affixed her helmet. When John pulled her feet into his lap, she noticed the man still seemed as sullen as before. "Really, John, I'm your mate for life, and that's a long time of you won't talk to me."

"So you're saying my life will be shorter of I do talk to you?"

"No, it will be shorter if you don't talk," she growled back at him before sealing her visor. She pulled his hands away from the purple boot-straps he had been adjusting and continued in a softer tone, "If we communicate with each other it will seem shorter." She brought a finger to her masked chin and thought about that for a second. "But in a good way. Whatever. Just tell me what it is."

"Okay," he sighed, "It's Samara. And Jane."

She released his hands and leaned back into the pillows lining the headboard. She hadn't been expecting that. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Remember that talk we had with her after the last meeting? I just don't like thinking about what my sister may or may not have done," he said, finishing up with her boots. His task completed, he moved to sit against the headboard beside her, pulling her back against his chest. "It really sucks thinking your own sister could be a heck of a lot worse than the already despicable person she is."

Tali tensed up and rounded on the man, physically shaking from the pain and shock his words caused her. It didn't feel quite the same as if he'd intentionally struck her in the face with the stock of his rifle, but it was close. His words were hurtful, left no room for interpretation, and were hardly accidental. On all fours, she slowly backed away from the man loved, slowly shaking her head in disbelief until she reached the edge of the bed and stood up. She looked down at him in disgust, unsure of what to say or where to go from there.

"How...?" she started to ask, pausing to find the words she needed. John looked clueless. He started to climb out of the bed, but she threw out a hand to halt him. She didn't want him anywhere near her at the moment. "How can you possibly _say that_ about your own sister? I... I really feel like she's my sister too. My family too! I heard tales about having siblings from the days back on Rannoch and I always wanted one of my own. That's something _else_ that the geth took from us. Our unborn children. My family! _Keelah_, I really thought mine had gotten bigger by one, you know?"

He held up his hands in a gesture of mollification. "Damn... Tali, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that," he said from the edge of the bed, sitting next to where she stood, but making no effort to get up himself.

"Despicable?!" she hissed, opening both hands in a sign of exasperation, "I don't care what she's done, you can't call your sister- our sister- that. Ever."

"I said I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that," he said, reaching for her hand.

She jerked her hand away from him and took a step back. She hadn't ever thought of herself as capable of doing that. It actually came as such as a surprise that she had to fight her natural instinct to grab for him and apologize. There was no possible way she could keep this up for very long. That meant that the little time she had to be mad at him was all the more valuable.

John hung his head, clearly upset by what he had said. "Tali, I only meant that she's done some things that no one should be proud of. I was wrong to call her that, and I didn't even mean it. I should have said that she's _done_ some despicable things, not that she's like that herself."

"You listen, John'Shepard, she's not the same person she was before." Arms crossed, Tali released a tinny sigh though her vocalizer and took a step closer to him. Her knees brushed his and she gently locked one of his legs in between hers. "I mean that. Jane and I talk, you know. She doesn't see it. _Obviously_ you don't see it. But I do. She may have killed a lot of people before... Passed summary judgment on them. Executed them. But since you two have been back, I don't think she's done that even _once_."

John looked up at her and then down to his trapped thigh as she rubbed it with her knees. "Yeah, I was just thinking about that," he said, "I thought a lot of people would be dead by now, for sure. Even Miranda. When she shot that scientist..."

"Wilson," supplied the quarian.

"Yeah, him, thank you," the Spectre replied, looking up at her, "When Miri did that, I was sure that Jane was gonna blow her head clean off. At the time I thought she might have been feeling charitable 'cause she'd just been brought back from the dead or given a second chance. But in hind-sight, not even that seems likely."

"And don't forget about the batarian pervert with the family," said Tali.

John looked up at her, the surprise evident on his face that she had heard about that.

"Yeah, we talk," she said, smiling, "Did she tell you about the asari Spectre she just met? The one she was absolutely _sure_ had tried to kill Liara and steal the Shadow Broker data?"

"I heard about if from Garrus in the meeting," replied John.

He started rubbing both his hands up and down the outsides of her thighs. She sighed and let him continue. She was still mad at him, _really_ mad, but there was absolutely no way she could deny herself his touch any longer. She needed it, she enjoyed it, and she wanted it to continue. She could imagine herself completely beside herself with furious rage at this human, the victim of some terrible offense, and she would still gladly bed him. She would never punish herself just because the uncaring _bosh'tet_ happened to enjoy it too. They would have intense, wrath-filled sex, full of biting, clawing, and wrestling that left him bloody and both of them sore. Strangely, the thought actually seemed to turn her on a lot...

"_Keelah_, is it getting hot in here?" she asked to no one in particular, adjusting her suit's temperature controls down a few degrees.

"Maybe," he said, moving one of his hands to her inner thigh. She moved it back again and grunted, levying her verdict. "But I didn't hear anything about her trying to kill Liara or take the data," John finished.

"Well she believes that part, and I believe her," Tali replied, "But she said she didn't have any proof, just a strong suspicion and her stomach instinct. That was plenty enough for the old Jane to kill someone."

"Gut instinct," said John, "And I agree that doesn't seem typical for her."

"That's what I said," protested Tali, "Stomach instinct."

"You said it wrong again," he replied.

She shoved his chest, knocking his back to the bed. "Stomach instinct! I think your translator has a problem with khelish," she humorously chastised him.

"No, I think your translator has a problem with English!" he yelled back, giving her a poke in the stomach for good measure.

"Nuh-uh!" she yelled, taking a flying leap at the supine man.

...

Miranda's office door chimed. It was terribly late, but a visitor was not completely unheard of at this hour. The operative set down the reports from the ship's upgrade tests and looked up at the door. Rather than sparing the moment it would take for EDI to tell her who had chosen to pay her a visit, she simply called for the person to enter. She wasn't too surprised with who it was, but she still wished it hadn't come to this. A pit of dread formed in her stomach.

"We need to talk," her guest blurted out, making it known that this discussion wasn't going to be optional.

"Of course, Lieutenant Zorah," she replied, a thin smile spreading on her face. She glanced at the AI's holopad by the door. "EDI, please activate the noise cancellation around this room and seal the doors."

"_Operation complete, Staff Lieutenant Lawson_," the artificial intelligence replied, "_Logging you out_."

Miranda closed her eyes slowly and held them like that for a few seconds, hoping against all odds that when she opened them again, there wouldn't be an irate quarian woman standing in front of her desk. She opened her eyes and almost laughed at the sick sense of humor belonging to a God she didn't believe in. Tali wasn't standing in her office anymore. She was sitting in it, her chair pulled right up to the operative's desk.

"It's about Jane," the younger woman said as she leaned forward in her chair.

"I know," she replied, "I've been expecting you. What do you want to know?"

Tali sat back in her chair and cocked an eyebrow, one of her glowing eyes appearing brighter than the other. "And how were you expecting me?" she asked slowly.

"Well, to be fair, I'm also expecting Jack to come rampaging through that door at some point. Both of you were given highly sensitive personnel data. You got information about the twins and Jack got information about herself."

"So I need to know," Tali asked, saying each word slowly for emphasis, "Are you, or Cerberus, controlling Jane?"

"No," Miranda replied smoothly, "She's in complete control of herself. Why do you ask?" What she didn't mention, but nevertheless felt curious about, was why the girl didn't wonder the same thing about her fiancé.

"I think you know _why_ I'm asking," she said, "Jane really is a different person from who she used to be. I don't think John or Garrus want to see it, but I was part of her old crew as well. I was there. I know she's different. She's not any nicer, really, but she isn't as impulsive either. And not as sadistic, if I'm being honest about it."

"Well, as I understand it, she found religion and stopped making questionable kills shortly before Alchera," the operative said, pretending to be distracted by her terminal. She opened up a social networking site and scrolled though her messages, desperately hoping her nonchalant attitude left the engineer convinced of her feigned indifference. "Maybe dying helped her think about the way she'd been treating people... And that pushed her over the edge into morality."

"Maybe," the quarian admitted, "but she's actually been less active in her human religion now than before. I mean, I think she's trying to change that, but still, this seems different. She's drinking less too. I... I don't know. I'm suspicious and I had to ask because you know I can't be sure."

"I gave you the data," Miranda said, "And you sent it off to your people with my blessing. That took a lot for me to do." She smiled at the young woman, hoping she and her people had appreciated the gesture of cooperation. The data and the corresponding technological leap had been attributed to the Alliance and not to Cerberus. God help her if the Illusive Man ever found out about it, but she had done it to help ingratiate herself with the Shepards, their alien team members, and to potentially earn the crew some very valuable allies.

"And I thank you for giving it to me and not trying to stop me when I passed it on," the quarian said. She paused and looked down, as if deciding how far she was willing to pursue this line of inquiry. "But I think we both know _why_ that wasn't enough, considering..."

Apparently, she wanted to take it further than she was willing to voice aloud. Miranda pursed her lips and glanced down at her desk then back at the girl. "Quite. Have you told her yet?"

"No. Not at all." As her face-plate scanned abut the room, she continued in a hushed voice, "Ancestors, could you imagine?"

"I can, actually," she admitted, "Whatever Jack might do is nothing compared to the captain. I figured you hadn't told her when I saw it was just you walking in here. I correctly assumed that you would come to me first before breaking the news to her. Thank you for that."

"Your welcome." Tali sighed and shook her head. She started twiddling her fingers and staring at them as she did.

After seeing her silently keep up the action for almost a full minute, Miranda intervened, "So what do you want to do about it?"

The quarian's fingers stopped dancing. "I don't know. I don't think there's anything I can do without letting her know, or at least making her suspicious," She looked up at her with fearful glowing eyes, "And I'm not going to tell her. Or anyone else for that matter."

Miranda breathed a heavy sigh. She didn't mind letting Tali hear it. Hiding her relief from the girl would constitute a glaring lie of omission. A krogan battlemaster would have been just as relieved to not upset Jane Shepard in such a fashion.

"What about other quarians?" the executive officer asked, "What if they mention it to her?"

"That's not a possibility," Tali replied, "It's classified, so not even my aunt or my father will find out about it."

"What about the quarians you actually sent it to?" the human asked, "As classified as their findings might be, surely those people are still permitted to discuss whatever they found with the twins. It's their bodies, after all."

"You mean Dar'Xen?" the engineer asked incredulously, "Not a chance. She might want to say something to them, to ask them all kinds of questions, but she can't. She doesn't have their contact information, only mine. Not only that, but I've already turned off John and Jane to the idea of getting maintenance or undergoing a thorough examination from her. You and I can meet all their needs. Not even Captain Chakwas will be involved beyond whatever minor damage they sustain to their organic parts."

"Doctor Chakwas might find out about Jane eventually," said Miranda.

"We both know she already knows," said Tali, her voice becoming short, "You hired her to consult during the operation, remember?"

"Sorry," said Miranda, "I just wanted to spare you from thinking she was hiding something from you, or from them."

"How noble of you," snarked the girl, "But I'm not stupid. The copy of the tape she showed to Garrus was clearly altered. A quarian still in the bubble could see that."

"So what happens when you go to the Fleet to get married?" asked Miranda, deciding to get their discussion back on track, "This Daro person could tell John and he won't keep it from his sister. Not that it will even come to that because Jane will probably be your maid of honor or whatever you call it. Daro could tell her directly and the Captain will go berserk right in the middle of your ceremony."

"Forget about that," the engineer said with the wave of a hand, "Daro's not invited to my bonding ceremony and we won't be going anywhere near the _Moreh_. There's no possible way the twins will ever run into her."

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	16. Dead Memories

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Chapter 16: Dead Memories

John pulled up a seat next to his sister at the mess table, a plate of bacon, eggs, and two pancakes balanced precariously over a large cup of coffee. He looked over at his twin and shook his head in mock disgust.

"What?" she asked, looking up at him as he sat down.

"Your plate. Bacon, ham, fried tomatoes, sausage, _poached_ eggs, fried mushrooms, baked beans, hash browns..."

"Did I miss anything?" she asked.

"The kitchen sink, apparently," he muttered, sipping his coffee. He pointed a finger at something he found particularly strange, "And what in the galaxy is _that_?"

"The black pudding? Want some?" she asked.

"Is it chocolate?"

"Stupid Yank," she shook her head and took a gulp of tea, "Yes. It's chocolate. If you want some, I'll have Gardner bring over the powdered sugar and whipped cream and I'll make it extra special, just for you."

"Sis, I know pudding," he said, trying not to sound too tempted by the offer, which did actually sound somewhat good to him, "It comes in small cups with a peel-off lid. That looks like something Tali scraped out of the engines and formed into a circle."

"I cannot honestly believe that we're related," she said, giving him a knowing smirk.

He returned the smile with a sly one of his own. He mocked her in his best impression of her mancunian accent, "And I cannot honestly believe you're not as fat as a hog, eating like that."

"Biotic metabolism," she shrugged, "Now that you've got biotics too, you might not disappoint Tali so much when you take your shirt off." She poked him in the stomach to emphasize her point. He tightened his abs an instant before she made contact, the result of years of intense training to impress the opposite sex.

Had anyone else made the comment, he'd have been quite upset. But Jane was Jane, and he knew she didn't mean anything by it. Bedsides, he may not have had the rock-hard, chiseled physique of his sister, but he was still a damn fine specimen of male athleticism if he did say so himself.

"So, I just talked with Hackett," he said, deciding to change the subject.

"Yeah? How'd it go?"

"Not bad, actually. Gave him his sitrep... But we have a mission. Risk assessment is very low, but it won't be easy."

"Okay..." she said, offering him a confused look. When he started to chew a bit of his lip and look away, she motioned for him hurry up and get on with it.

"Alchera. We're going back to Alchera."

...

"You look upset," said Garrus as Jane walked into the main battery, "Whatever Kasumi picked out for you to wear at the dinner party can't be that bad. I'm sure it's flattering enough." His subharmonic trebles of humor changed to a subtle note of concern as he noticed the empty assault pack she carried.

"Where are we going?" he asked, his tone turning flat.

"Nowhere," Jane replied, quickly giving him a peck on the mandible. "I'm landing on the planet below with Johnny, and you're gonna stay here and think happy thoughts. I just wanted to say goodbye before I took off."

"Whoa, whoa, no you don't," he replied, "You're not getting into any firefights without me, period. And neither is John for that matter. Is he nuts, not consulting me about this? Did he even approve this? Where are we anyway? It doesn't seem like we've reached Bekenstein yet."

"We haven't. We're over Alchera," she said, casting her gaze to the deck.

Garrus placed a hand on her shoulder and slowly polled her into an embrace. "I see. I'm sorry. I don't pretend to know what it must have been like for you. Out there."

"Yeah," she replied softly, "But that's not... It's not about me. I sucks to say it, but next to you, dying was the best thing to ever happened to me. Hell, it was pretty good for Johnny too. He doesn't even remember it. Suddenly he wakes up from a nap, gets the girl, a six month holiday from the Alliance, a well-paying side-job, and a new cabin that's bigger than some apartments. This is about the crew we lost. It tears me up to think about it."

"Then why go?" he asked as he pressed her against him, his subharmonics trilling sadness.

"I hate it when you do that," she said quietly.

"Turians can't help it," he said, "we do it all the time. I think I even heard you trying to do it once."

They both smiled at that.

"Not the sound in general, Skully, its _that_ sound. You only make it when you're sad. I'd do anything to not hear it."

"Ear plugs?"

She slapped him playfully. "We're gonna go place a monument to the SR1. Maybe I'll pick up some things to remember the fallen by."

"I should go, Jane. I was there too." He rubbed her back with a hand, his talons trailing up and down her armor.

"Maybe, but I'm asking you not to go. I have a new life now. I need to mourn the dead with Johnny and put these spirits to rest. For me, please, don't press the issue."

Garrus considered that. She hadn't demanded or ordered him to do anything, made a snarky comment, or otherwise threatened repercussions, and that didn't surprise him. Indeed, his surprise came from the fact that her tone _hadn't surprised him_. She had been polite and kind when asking, and her sincerity felt so palpable that he could almost cut it with a knife. She was an adult and knew what she needed to make herself feel better. No, as much as he wanted to join her, he wouldn't press this issue. In two years, he hadn't been back to this planet. He could wait until this mission was over to maybe visit the memorial for himself. She had been the captain of that ship, and she was perfectly entitled to mourn in her own way. At least John would be there with her.

"Sure. I'd like to see you when you get back," he said.

"I'd like that. Meet me in the bar." She pulled away from him, still holding his shoulders. Her lips parted into a wide grin, revealing her pearly-white teeth. She still looked _very_ sad, but Garrus could still see hope pushing its way through. She leaned in for a final kiss before leaving.

...

"Why do you have to go?" Tali asked, her expression one of resignation. She held his hands in hers, only mildly distracted by the work left undone at the engineering terminal behind her.

"It is what it is," he replied, "I need to do this for the guys and girls that didn't get a second chance."

"I... I know, but..." She shook her head, seemingly unsure of what to say. "I just don't want to think about that. If it was me, I'd never, ever, go anywhere near that place again. Honestly, I'm sick to my stomach just knowing we're in orbit over this hell-hole. I'm glad you told me so I don't curl into the fetal position and go berserk with flashbacks the next time I pass by the observation- Wait a minute. You, uh, don't want me to go down there with you, do you?"

"No, no, I just wanted to let you know where I was going to be for the next hour or so," he replied. If it was entirely up to him, he would have her along in a heartbeat. But his sister's opinion had to factor into the decision-making process as well. Although John had lost a pair of marines, the _Normandy_ was her loss and her command. She had felt the pain of its destruction far more acutely than he had. At the moment, her interest lied with taking him alone on this first return to the crew's collective graveyard. He would not make demands to the contrary.

"Alright then. Come visit me when you get back?" she asked.

"No. You come visit me. In the bar. I think I'll need a drink."

"Me too," she softly agreed.

He didn't catch what she had said until he had already walked out of engineering. The doors closing behind him, he only caught a glimpse of her backside, providing him with quite a view, but no hint into the sincerity of her statement. As far as John knew, Tali never touched alcohol of any kind. His death had destroyed her, he knew, and perhaps the planet-sized reminder beneath them was enough to entice her into self-medicating herself into a blissful stupor.

He shook his head to himself and started for the second door that would take him to the elevator for his rendezvous with Jane.

"Hey Boyscout!"

John stopped himself, his hand frozen in mid-air, just as he was about to palm the door open. He turned to find Jack poking her head up from the steps to the ship's bowels.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"I'm sorry about what happened down there," she said, "Dying sucks. For everyone."

John resisted the urge to tilt his head sideways at the woman, now sporting a black leather jacket and thin white top over her normally barren torso. It must have been pretty cold down there. It had almost sounded like she was implying that she had been upset about his demise two years ago. She did say that she had followed his exploits against Saren, even while on the run from the law.

"It does, thank you Jack. Hearing you say that means a lot to me," he said, smiling.

"Fuck you. I don't give a shit," she replied softly, fighting against a smile of her own and losing the battle.

The young convict actually looked hurt. That probably wasn't far from the truth. He knew her type, knew _her _well enough to know she had a thing for him. Her almost continuous bluster and jokes about fucking him raw, something she did religiously whenever Tali wasn't around, amounted to more than just posturing and sexual harassment. There was more than a kernel or truth in her words. Not only that, but from the way he always refused to take the bait she offered, she must have known that it was all for naught. As she disappeared to return to her hold, John hastened to stall her.

"Hey, wait, I want to talk to you." he called after her, making his way down the stairs.

"Get the fuck out!" the woman screamed as soon as she came into view. Her words were harsh, but it was clear she meant the exact opposite. She wouldn't meet his eyes, instead going to great length to look away from him.

At this point he had two choices. He could either turn around and forget this ever happened, or he could stay the course and renew his intentions to speak with her. He froze in place, standing on the platform halfway between the two flights of stairs, weighing the decisions. A good commander never made went back on a demand once spoken aloud, and he _did_ say he wanted to talk with her.

"I know you care," he said, "I know you cared a _lot_ when I died. It was hard on everyone; even on some people I hadn't met yet." Jack winced at his words, like they were hot poker jabbing at her side.

He took a few of the steps leading to her chambers. She said nothing, nor turned to meet his gaze, despite the clear ringing of his footfalls on the barren metal stairs. Now he could see she'd been crying, probably since hearing that they were in orbit over the old _Normandy_'s resting place. He took a few more steps, eventually reaching the bottom of the stairwell. Slowly, he walked to the side of her cot where she sat, taking a knee next to her. Gently, he placed a pair of fingers on her chin, using them to urge her to face him. She had definitely been crying for a little while at least. Muddy streaks of black eye-shadow ran from her long eyelashes to the base of her chin. Knowing she had cared so much about his death shocked him more than he wanted to admit.

"What wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said softly, turning away again, "Doesn't matter anymore, anyway."

She was quiet for a few seconds as John simply looked on. He debated between pressing the issues further, outright leaving her then and there, or just sitting and waiting for her to say something. Finally she spoke, but her tone had changed completely, hardening into something fierce, and what she said was definitely not what he expected to hear.

"Look... Level with me-" she shook her head, as if in disbelief that she was even considering what she was about to say, "-do you want to fuck me or not?"

At first he thought she might have meant that metaphorically, but something told him she was very serious about this question. Most men wouldn't have turned her down. Most men were not John Shepard, however. She clearly wasn't used to rejection and might not have been taking the process well. But what did that have to do with his death over Alchera?

"What I may or may not _want_ doesn't have anything to do with it," he replied, "We've spent a lot of time together... working, sparring, drinking, just hanging out... I'm certainly attracted to you, and it helps that I like you a lot. Probably even enough to have a relationship, yes, and if that led somewhere then sure, we would have sex. But I can't. It's just not possible."

"Tali?" she asked, not sounding in the slightest bit upset, but rather dejected.

"Yeah, I'm in love," he admitted, "And I take my commitments very seriously." He resisted the urge to put his hand on her thigh or do anything else to comfort her that could be taken the wrong way. He settled for rubbing her leather-clad shoulder.

"I know," she sighed, "That's part of the reason I can't get the fuck over you. I wish I'd gotten to you first."

"Thanks," he said, squeezing her shoulder, "You think you'd have been ready for a Boyscout three years ago?"

"No. But I would've been twenty years ago. Fuck, Shepard, I coulda used you then." She leaned her head against his chest, moving her hand to his thigh, resting it over where his lay.

John felt very uncomfortable by this, to say nothing of what Tali might say were she to come down to the bilges for spare parts, but he did nothing to stop her. She needed the comfort, and her actions were innocent enough for the moment. Turning away someone he cared about went against every instinct he had.

"I was eleven, then."

"And I was four. Doesn't mean I'm wrong." she said, "Damn... Jane and Tali. Lucky bitches." She shook her head again, just like before, as if debating something in her head and being surprised by whatever resolution she came to.

As it turned out, John felt just as surprised.

The convict's hand shot from his, cupping his cheek, her other hand coming from behind to cradle the opposite one. At the same instant, she pressed her lips against his, locking him tightly in a chaste kiss, somehow full of equal parts passion, desperation, and hope. Her lips felt hot yet welcoming against his. Her bright red lipstick was sticky and greasy, enhancing the electric contact he felt. The woman's scent, feminine sweat mixed with cheap men's cologne, met his senses and he found it absolutely wonderful and strangely arousing. Her ragged panting assaulted his ears, interrupted only by soft moans and breathy gasps. Seconds ticked by before he realized what the hell was going on and what he needed to do about it.

He broke away from her as soon as he felt reality encroaching, swinging his head over his left shoulder first, then his right, looking for any signs of an enraged, knife-wielding, quarian fiancé. Seeing none, he returned to the woman sitting in front of him with a questioning glare.

"Grow the fuck up," she scoffed, "You woulda heard the doors sliding open. And I wouldn'ta done that to ya anyway."

"Don't do that again," he growled, then softened his tone, "In another time, another life, yes, absolutely. But not here, not now."

"Yeah, I know, Boyscout," she replied, scooting away from him and lying down on her cot, "If you weren't so damn faithful, I wouldn't be so damn wet for you all the time. It's your own fucking fault. You should probably just let me fuck you silly to get it out of my system. It's a good bet I'll leave you the hell alone after that."

"No."

"Meh. Worth a shot," she said, rolling away from him and tucking a pillow under her head, "Just tell me something... Would you really be willing to date me, have a real relationship, take me home to your fucking _mom_ and all, if Tali wasn't in the picture?"

John folded his arms across his chest, thinking about the question. Tali and Jack, while not friends, had certainly passed the jealously-murder phase of their relationship. Would this woman try to harm Tali if he answered honestly? Jack might be a very dangerous killer, yes, but she had never taken a life in cold blood. She was also smart enough to know that she would instantly become the prime suspect anyway, forever barring her from his affections, and without question sentencing her to a very painful death at the hands of his sister.

"Yes, Jack," he admitted, taking a step closer to her and rubbing her shoulder again, "If I had never met Tali, or if she ever left me, I would absolutely be willing to try a relationship with you, and do everything that comes with that."

Her sobbing began again, without even trying to hide it, her back and shoulders shuddering with minor spasms. He rubbed along her jacketed back, alternating between using the heel of his palm and his knuckles, trying to calm her.

"Fuck you," she said softly, her voiced distorted by her anguished expression, "Fuck you. First, you tell me that it isn't gonna happen... Then tell me..." she sobbed heavily, her voice almost unintelligible, "Tell me everything I could have had... Fuck you... Why the fuck _couldn't you have just lied to me?!_"

He waited a few moments for her to calm down. His touch seemed to help. When she did, she continued.

"I swear, if she screws up even once... If she ever, _ever_ hurts you, that girl isn't gonna get a second chance. I'll be all over you like a fat kid on cake."

He chuckled and so did she. It seemed to lighten the mood.

"I like the jacket," he said, getting up to leave.

"Fuck off. Honest piece of shit..."

Although she had rolled away from him on her cot, John could swear he saw the faintest glimmer of a genuine smile curling at her lips.

...

"Back so soon?" Joker asked the twins as he swiveled the cockpit chair around for a view of the airlock. He was attempting to be in high spirits, the better to off-set any potential despondency on the part of the twins.

He needn't have worried. While solemn, they were both feeling much better than they had been immediately prior to the trip. The experience had been cathartic, and badly needed.

"Yeah," replied John, "We found a spot for them to drop off the memorial. Right in front of the old CIC. I think you'll find it fitting."

"I'll visit one day, when this is all over," the pilot replied, his normally jovial attitude replaced by seriousness. "Thanks for going down there."

"We'll all go there together when this is over," agreed Jane, taking her brother by the arm and leading him down the corridor to the CIC. "Set course for Bekenstein and get us out of here," she called over her shoulder.

The pair had come to a silent mutual agreement that their next stops aboard the ship would be their respective cabins, rather than the bar, to drop off the dog tags and other items they had reclaimed from the crash-site. John had found his old N7 armor essentially intact, if a little worse for wear, and had decided to collect his helmet as a souvenir. Jane's armor had been a little harder to come by, but she managed to find most of it, save for her right pauldron, rerebrace, and vambrace, the parts that made up her armor's entire right arm. She had consequently decided to leave the incomplete mess there, like John, taking only the helmet.

She wouldn't have been so upset by it had she not really wanted the whole thing for her militaria collection, and the captain refused to display an incomplete set. It would not have mattered so much, were the missing arm not the one with the coveted N7 stripe on it. Some treasure-hunting groupie had probably gotten a hold of it. John made a mental note to ask Conrad about it the next time he saw him.

The elevator door opened just as the pair arrived at the base of the galaxy map, admitting Tali and Garrus onto the second deck. John, Jane, and the ever-present Kelly turned to greet them.

"How'd it go?" asked the turian, stepping up to Jane and pulling her in for a hug.

Tali did the same thing to her Shepard, although with much less enthusiasm. She was still clearly upset by the ship's present location.

"Not bad," said Jane, releasing the embrace and dropping her assault pack from her shoulder, opening it for the dextro crew members to inspect. "We got some goodies down there. We were gonna drop them off in our rooms before we hit the bar together."

Tali peered into the bag, removing the smaller of the two helms. Turning it around in her hand, her eyes went wide for the briefest of instants before she dropped it back inside. John glanced to his sister, then his best friend. They hadn't caught Tali's reaction, but he had. Now if he only knew what it was all about.

"Wait a minute, Tali," Garrus said, reaching into the bag and pulling out Jane's old helmet, "Let me see that."

Feeling the lurch of the faster-than-light drive activate beneath them, the quarian embraced John again, sighing deeply into his chest. She still felt tense though, and somehow insecure. It wasn't the nervousness that she sometimes felt around him; they had pretty much left that stage of their relationship in the dust after the other night. It had to be something else entirely.

"What's wrong?" he whispered into her audio pick-up.

"Nothin," she said, "Justh anotha sthinuth flare upth."

John smiled and nodded, feeling guilty for finding her sinus-clogged voice so adorable.

"Where's the rest of your helmet?" asked Garrus. In his hand, he held only the front half of the aforementioned armor. It was a mask more than a helm, the internals of the HUD optics and rebreather apparatus clearly visible from the other side. It would have left the back of Jane's had completely exposed, were she to try it on now. Fractured, blackened edges were the only remnant of where the remainder of the helmet should have been.

"It's right here," said Jane. She dipped a hand into the pack, withdrawing a cluster of black shards, some of the pieces so small that they fell through her fingers.

"That's... Part of your helmet?" the turian asked, "What the hell did that? Alliance armor is around _fourteen_ on the Mohs hardness scale. Diamond is a ten, right Tali?"

Tali mumbled something unintelligible and gripped John's arm tightly, almost tugging at him. First being notified that the ship had been orbiting Alchera, and then seeing her captain's helmet like this... John could sympathize with the young woman. He took the armor from his friend's hand and dropped it back into the pack.

"We don't really know what happened," said John, "It's been burnt, definitely, and that causes the armor to turn real brittle, but that could _not_ have been caused by our fall from orbit."

Garrus gave him a questioning glance, a low noise accompanying it. He guessed those were his subharmonics, further speculating that it somehow communicated disbelief. His sister had taken to learning what all the different turian sounds meant, but not him.

"I remember from HALO school that the terminal velocity of a human is around two-hundred KPH, maybe two-fifty with gear and armor," said the male Spectre, "Not enough to cook anything. Besides, my helmet is fine," he withdrew his, showing it off for his friend and his fiance, "and I was right next to her the whole time."

"We might have been moving faster than that because of lower wind resistance, but you're right, Johnny," said Jane, "Less air means a lot less heat. We would have slowed to terminal-V by the time we hit, though. I've ridden an air-bike faster than that."

"Prothally justh sthome bosth'theths scathenthers shoth ith upth or sthothin," said the quarian.

...

Jane smiled, shrugged, and gave the turan a kiss on a mandible. John did the same to his fiancé. Together the twins took their leave to drop their items off in their rooms, but not before promising to meet them in a few minutes for drinks. That left Garrus and Tali to their own devices, waiting for the elevator to return and take them to deck three.

"You remember back when it happened?" the former C-Sec officer asked his fellow dextro, "When I showed you on my omni-tool how they were falling from orbit?"

She nodded gravely, not liking at all where this conversation was going. Hopefully, it wasn't too late to keep playing dumb. Then again, playing dumb was never her strong suit. He might start to suspect that she knew more than she was letting on. Which she did.

"They were moving Spirits-damned fast... a lot faster than taking freefall dive from geosynchronous orbit," said the ex-cop, obviously not out of practice when it came to conducting investigations, "Hell, they were stationary relative to the _Normandy_ and you know how fast she was moving, trying to outrun that dreadnaught. Not to mention, Jane told me an eezo blast pushed them into the planet. Could the combination of those factors been enough to heat up Jane's armor, causing it to crack on impact?"

Tali looked away and shrugged, thankful that her glowing pupils made it impossible for him to know that she refused to look him in the eyes. "Perthapsth. Buh whath abouth _Johnsth_ armor?" she asked, right before painfully sneezing.

"I'm not sure. His is fine," he replied, "I guess the idea that someone hated Jane enough to destroy her armor- even after she died- doesn't sit well with me. But It only makes sense. I think she had a lot of enemies. Probably some who wanted to kill her themselves and got upset when they couldn't. It doesn't matter anyway. She's back, none the worse for wear, and that's all in the past. Bar?"

"Bar," she wholeheartedly agreed.

...

"That was easy," Liara chortled, standing amid the rubble of the Shadow Broker's office. All around her, Thane, and Garrus lay the remnants of the ceiling, still sparkling with whatever blue energy had flowed above them. In the center of the room, on its back, reposed the corpse of one very dead Yahg.

"Speak for yourself, Liara," grumbled the turian, "You weren't the one who got into a fist fight with him."

"Or stabbed him," added Thane, earning a nod from the former C-Sec officer, "But you did indeed kill that monster. It was his time."

He approached the fallen creature and crossed one arm over it chest, motioning for Garrus to do the same from where he stood on the other side. Not understanding in the slightest, but still perfectly willing to comply, the turian hefted the limb and did as he was asked.

Thane knelt and began to pray. From behind him, another drell, Liara's friend Feron, joined him at the side of the body, their poetic words added to the ever increasing din of communiqués from the fallen yahg's field agents.

...

"I thought you looked fantastic in that dress, by the way," said Kasumi, idly running her finger's over her late friend's gray-box, "And you dance divinely."

Jane sat down on a crate next to her, waiting for their shuttle to automatically power up and collect them. The mission had gone well, Kasumi had what she wanted, and both of them had acquired a new submachinegun each.

"Thanks, but... I just don't think it's me," she said. It occurred to her that maybe she had offended the thief's fashion-sense. "You did I great job picking it out, though. But you know, formal-wear isn't my style."

"It's a cocktail dress, not a ball-gown!" she said, managing to sound hurt, "I think you should ask Garrus before you just toss it in your closet with all that make-up you don't use."

Jane smirked at the woman, receiving a playful pat on the shoulder. "You think he might like it?" she asked the younger woman.

"Well, it does show off that gorgeous waist of yours."

Jane, the Hero of the Citadel, the Butcher of Torfan, actually felt herself blushing. "Well, just don't tell Garrus I had to dance with that filthy jock- Scotsman- to get it. His wondering hands felt like bushels of maggots crawling all over me. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to vomit on him or shoot him."

"I won't tell him, but you should," she replied, "Every woman should make her boyfriend a little jealous. Besides, you killed the only man to touch you since you and he became an item. What turian wouldn't love to hear that?"

"Still..."

"Well, I'm glad you didn't shoot him or throw up," said Kasumi, "One would have ruined your cover, and the other would have ruined your dress. It's about as expensive as that gunship you shot down. And it's all yours. You can even wear it to Tali's wedding."

"Huh?" Jane gave her a confused look, "Isn't the bride supposed to pick out the brides maids' dresses? I figured it'd be all purple and swirly like the hood she wears."

"Shep, that's her pattern. You'd have to change your name to Zorah to wear it, I think. As for the color, we would all have to wear different ones. I'd be stuck with yellow. I hear it's the color of lawyers and criminals."

"Well, we wouldn't want anyone confusing you for a barrister. The shame..." Jane chuckled.

"Tell me about it," Kasumi replied, "But quarians don't really have ceremonies, just a gathering to log the names into the ship, so whatever we do for the crew and family will have to be modeled on a human marriage. Tali doesn't know anything about that-"

"But neither do I," the Spectre interrupted.

"But you still know more than her. And I'll help. By the way, black is perfectly acceptable to wear at quarian bondings. It means change."

"So, little black dresses for all the ladies?" Shepard asked, "And suits or dress whites for the gentlemen?"

"Dress blues," replied the thief, "White is the color of death among quarians. The dresses work, though." Kasumi opened a bag that Jane had not noticed she had been carrying. She angled it so the Spectre could see inside.

"What are those?" she asked, eyeing the pair of large stone tablets with curly etchings on them.

"You wedding gift to Tali," she replied with a smile, "These are the ancient quarian tablets we saw in Hock's vault."

"Well, damn, I can't give those to her... This was your mission. They're yours to give."

"Honey, I stole them. Just like that dress you're wearing."

She looked down at her right cargo pocket where she has stuffed the garment, subconsciously wondering if there were hidden anti-theft devices.

"I guess I don't feel so bad about that," she said. As far as she was concerned, anyone who could afford items like those could afford to part with them as well. Hell, the young woman could have stolen both of the Scottish bastard's kidneys and the Spectre wouldn't have batted an eyelash. But the dress...

"So what kind of store did you steal the dress from?"

"An evil one."

"Good enough," replied Jane.

...

The last of Santiago's men dealt with, including a pair of rather nasty YMIR mechs, the team rushed for the landing pad before the Blue Suns leader could make his escape. Zaeed reached the door first, throwing all caution and procedure to the wind. He slammed the door controls hard enough to make everyone wince, storming through just as it began to open. John sprinted for the door, hoping to arrive quick enough to help the mercenary clear whatever waited for them on the other side.

He needn't have worried. Neither Santiago nor his remaining men were in the slightest bit interested in sticking around for a fight. The Spectre crossed the doorway just in time to see the mercenary-leader ascend the last few steps of the boarding ramp of his gunship. It was taking off before the hatch had even closed.

"Normandy, this is Black Knight Six. Do you have my position?" John said into his comm.

Joker's voice responded, "_Yeah, 'course I got you-_"

"Good, there's a Mantis gunship moving away from our position," John paused to make sure he was facing the craft as he checked the directional indicator and laser rangefinder on his visor's heads-up display. "One-hundred, seventy-two degrees, around five-hundred meters from my position. Are you tracking?"

Distantly, John was aware of Tali coming up to his side and Zaeed screaming into the air as he emptied his Revenant at the swiftly moving craft.

"_Yes, Sir, I've got it. She's burning fast, thermals are lit up like a Christmas tree. EDI's got him on RADAR and LIDAR too_."

John breathed a sigh of relief. He had already pissed Zaeed enough on this botched mission. It was the old mercenary's fault, but all the same he did not want to make an enemy of the man.

"Good. Bring it down," he said.

EDI spoke this time, "_Commander, we have several firing solutions available_. _I recommend Mr. Moreau conduct an air-to-air intercept sortie. It provides the greatest probability of success._"

"Joker?" asked the Spectre.

"_Much as I hate to admit it, she's right, Commander. We're already on an intercept. Look for the boom in twenty seconds. Should be about two klicks out_."

"Make it good. Six, out," he said before closing the channel.

Zaeed ejected his thermal magazine and whirled around to face the commander. He inserted a fresh one as he started to bring the weapon to bear on the other man, snarling in anger. "You just cost me twenty years-"

He never finished the sentence. An armor-plated shin, propelled by a powerful high-kick, sent the weapon flying. In the blink of an eye it was followed by a shotgun butt to the head, on the bad side of his face. Tali stood over the fallen and bleeding man, ready to pull the trigger of her weapon at a moments notice. Half a dozen other team members all had their weapons trained on him as well.

"Don't you _**ever**_ point a weapon at my _inszel_ again!" she hissed at him, "You _**will**_ die next time."

"Zaeed, Look over there," said John, pointing in the direction of the retreating Vito Santiago, his gunship now a spec on the horizon.

Joker couldn't have planned it better if he had been trying. Just as the old mercenary turned his head, the _Normandy_ shot overhead like a chrome bullet, leaving four contrails in its wake. The roaring sound of its passing met their ears moments later. In a single second it caught up to the gunship, looking like an eagle catching a sparrow in mid air. It passed its target and continued onward into the distance until it disappeared completely, leaving a terribly bright flash in its wake. Almost exactly six seconds later, an earth-shattering boom rocked the team to their knees.

"_Black Knight Six, this is _Normandy_-_"

John adjusted the volume on his comm so everyone around him could hear.

"_-We have visual confirmation. The target is down. We're returning for another pass to hit the debris field... Just in case, over._"

Smiling, the Spectre turned away from the scene and back to Zaeed. He noticed the tongues of flames lapping at the pressurized fuel container just as it exploded. Tali managed to leap clear and none of the other team members except Zaeed were close enough to be in danger. Shrapnel and scaffolding went flying, the largest of the support members falling to pin the floored mercenary beneath it. The man howled at the pain of having his legs crushed at the thighs.

"Samara, Jack, get it off him!" called the commander.

The pair of biotic experts worked in tandem to remove the monstrous beam, the asari lifting it with a massive singularity, the human hurling it aside with a powerful throw. John rushed to the man's aide, checking for hemorrhages and broken bones.

"Sorry about that, Shepard," grumbled Zaeed, "You were good to your word. I shouldn't have doubted you." He glanced over at the glaring quarian, "and I won't stick a gun in your man's face again."

...

John palmed the haptic controls to his room and stepped inside. Taking a seat in his office chair, he began taking off his armor, starting with his boots. He had just enough time to grab a shower before the after action review. Sadly, Tali had declined to join him in the AAR and the bathing, citing health concerns and engine trouble in both cases.

Jane wanted to get the meeting over with early, and he could hardly blame her. Three simultaneous missions meant a very long time going over the specifics. Were the report just going from them to the Illusive Man, completeness and accuracy wouldn't have mattered one bit to the Spectres. But since Hackett and Anderson also wanted to be kept abreast of their activities, they would do this by the book every time.

Reminded of his continued obligations to the Alliance, the commander spared a moment to check his military e-mail client. As luck would have it, he had a single unread message waiting for him in his inbox. An instant surge of happiness ran through him at seeing the name of the sender.

_From: Operations Chief Ashley Williams_

_To: Lieutenant Commander John Shepard _

_Sir,_

_I have a request to ask you, but I'd rather do it over the comm. Can you call me when you get some free time? It won't take long. Any time at all is good for me._

_Very Respectfully,_

_Ops. Chf. Williams_

John glanced at his omni-tool, deciding he could spare a few minutes for a short phone call. Scrolling through his list of contacts, he found Ash's and hit 'send.' It rang only once before someone answered.

"_Mmmm... Uh, hello?_" Ash's voice sounded disheveled, but clear.

"Hey, Chief, it's John. Just saw your message," he said, continuing to remove his armor as he talked, "Did I wake you?"

"_Glad to hear from you, Sir. Yeah, you did wake me, but this is too important to worry about that,_" she said, pausing briefly, John assumed, to gather her thoughts at whatever late hour it was on Horizon, "_So, uh, about the request... First let me ask, if you don't mind... Were you really dead? Did someone really rebuild you?_"

John thought about that. He wasn't sure if he had died, but he had certainly been rebuilt. "Well-"

"_If it's too personal, I'll just come out and ask what's on my mind_," she said.

"No, no, it's alright," he sighed, "I'll tell you this. Jane and I took a header onto a planet from orbit. I don't know how badly I was injured, but it took two years and a lot of money to rebuilt us."

"_So it's possible you had brain damage, and they fixed it?_"

He could already see where this was going. She needed to know if it was still him in control of his own mind. He couldn't blame her at all for that. Were it not for Tali's inspection, he would be having doubts himself.

Courteously, she hadn't asked who it was that had saved him and his sister. She had to wonder, but his silence on the subject thus far had probably told her all she needed to know on the subject; he wasn't going to be providing that information any time soon. Either that, of she assumed it was some clandestine Alliance project.

"Yeah, Ash, I'm pretty damn certain I had some profound brain damage, and surprisingly, I'm none the worse for wear," he sighed, bracing himself for an argument, "And I'm not being controlled or anything like that. I had Tali and the whole Migrant Fleet pour over the schematics and the hours of video they took of our operation."

"_No, no, Sir. I believe you and her. I'm just wondering if they can do it again for someone else._"

Suddenly it all came together in John's head. Ash's husband had special needs. She had asked about brain damage. They had probably met in the Alliance, and he had most likely been injured in the line of duty. Were it Tali in a similar situation, he would pursue any and all possible leads like a hungry wolf after a meal, including potentially working with Cerberus. He wouldn't tell her about them yet, though. There was no need to reveal that until it was certain that they'd help him.

"Is this about your husband?" he asked, "Did he suffer some brain damage?"

The line fell silent for a moment. "_Yeah..._"

"I'll do everything I can for him. I'll contact the people that fixed Jane and I, and see if I can get them on this as soon as possible. I could even make the request a part of my mission against the collectors, of you join me."

He was treading on dangerous territory, he knew, but he didn't see another option.

"_What does your mission have to do with the people that fixed you? Didn't the Alliance bring you..._" Her voice trailed off. There was a pause at her end of the line."_No, they weren't the ones to fix you, were they?_"

John had to hand it to her, she was a smart woman. One did not reach the highest enlisted rank possible in the Alliance at the ripe old age of twenty-seven for nothing. Most people in her position took twenty years of service to get there, if they got there at all. She had managed it in less than ten, all while pursuing an undergrad degree in galactic theology.

"Is that important, Ash? You trust that they did a good job with Jane and I, Right?"

"_Yeah..._"

"I'm still Alliance, always will be, and Anderson and Hackett are in on this. But a private concern brought us back specifically for this mission of theirs. Your name came up as a possible recruit, but because of your situation they decided against it. If I tell them that you'd be interested if they tried to help your husband..." he finished, letting the gears turn in her head.

"_He could come too, you know. My husband. Once they made him well again. He'd really like that... A lot..._"

"Yeah, I'd figured he was Alliance military. He's welcome too," The Spectre said, glad he had managed to figure out that much on his own about his former gunny's spouse. "It would help if you could tell me about his injuries."

The line fell silent for a long moment. John took the opportunity to start the shower and finally strip down completely.

"Ash? You there?" he said into the comm.

"_Yeah, yeah, I am. Well, uh, you're right. He was an Alliance marine. He got shot up pretty bad some time ago. Like, real bad._"

"I'm really sorry to hear that," he said, and he meant it. It always hurt to hear about a fellow marine getting wounded.

"_Well, that part didn't cause the brain damage. Those are old wounds and he's completely recovered from them. But he's a biotic... And well, you know the old L2 implants?_"

"I remember. Kaidan had them," he replied. He hadn't thought about his former executive officer in a long time. Virmire had been one of the hardest decisions in his life. The significance of the fact that the woman he now spoke to was alive because of his decision, and Kaidan's sacrifice, was not lost on him. They hadn't even found enough singed remnants of the man to bury properly. _May God rest his soul._

"_Yeah... Kaidan..._" a wistful sigh came through the comm,"_Well, my husband has the old L2 implants. He had to over-clock them to deflect an explosion- a big one. He put everything he had into that shield, and it nearly killed him. Put him in a coma for a while. He was working with some salarians, and they managed to evac him. They did what they could for him, but for whatever reason they couldn't remove the implants. Now the only thing we can do is keep him heavily sedated whenever he's awake, or risk frying his brain._"

John listened to what she said and thought about Kaidan. He had had the same issues, albeit on a much smaller scale. No one had been able to help him before he had died- or rather, been sent to his death- but he had never been looked at by Cerberus, either. John made his decision.

"I'll get back to you as soon as possible. At the very least, I promise you I _will_ get him looked at. In exchange, I want you on my team again."

"_My first priority is my husband, Sir. He sacrificed himself for me. I owe him my life. In return for making him better, I'll gladly follow you into hell, holding a gas-can._"

"He's a lucky man."

"_No. I'm a very lucky woman._"

...

Fresh from the inside of a power conduit, Tali plopped down in her and John's desk chair and sighed, feeling good about being able to decompress for a bit before returning to her duties in engineering. She looked down onto their bedroom-living room area with admiration. Her human had finally begun to take the concept of keeping a clean house seriously, and all it took was a simple talking-to. He had missed some spots, but that was to be expected from someone who had never had to do it before. Jane was the same way, she had learned, and for that matter, so was Garrus. She hated to think about what their cabin must look like.

She allowed herself a contented smile, listening to the sound of the shower running as John cleaned himself up after the mission. There wasn't much she wouldn't give to be able to join him right now. She contented herself with the knowledge that soon a nude, muscular, and dripping wet human would be standing right behind her and toweling himself off, ripe for high-definition filming from her visor's onboard recording suite.

She decided to occupy herself by checking her e-mail for the tenth time that day. Logging onto their terminal, she felt elated at seeing a message from her aunt Shala. Perhaps she would finally have an answer as to whether or not she would be able to formally pursue her bond with John. Although it could never change the reality of her relationship with the Spectre, Fleet recognition had always been something to hope for, so much so that she couldn't fight the nervous anticipation she felt when clicking 'open.'

Nothing could have prepared her for what she read.

"_**John!**_"

A thudding noise sounded from the bathroom, then the hissing of the shower disappeared, followed by another thud and a series of loud human curses. The bathroom door finally slid open, revealing a dripping wet, nude, and visible upset human.

"What is it?!" he asked, pistol in hand, scanning the far corners of the room first, then his immediate surroundings, before stepping into the office area.

Tali spun in the chair to face him. "I just received a message from- You take a gun with you into the shower?"

"You don't?" he asked.

The quarian couldn't help but smile. Most bondmates would have been appalled to find that their significant others made a point of bathing with firearms. Not Tali. Not only was she feeling slightly better, but she also had an excuse keep her shotgun with her at all times. The young woman suddenly had visions of living in a large beach-house with her human, spending the whole morning of a free day inside a large sit-down shower, cleaning weapons and making out with him under the hot, streaming water. Such sweet dreams.

"I got a message from the Migrant Fleet," she said, "The Admiralty Board has accused me of treason!"

"What?" He looked as stunned as she felt.

"I'm scared, John..."

Still nude, he bent down, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her up from her seat. He held her there for a few precious moments.

"This is bullshit, Tals. No one who knows you could believe you'd betray your people."

Tali had no idea what a bull was, but she did know what shit meant, and it perfectly described how she felt upon hearing the news. "I don't know... They don't lay charges like this unless the evidence seems absolute."

"There must be some kind of mistake," said John as he turned to reach for a towel. "You love your admiral aunt like a mother and your father is the head of the board. Admiral Gerrel is a family friend. He wrote you that recommendation to Farseeker school, didn't he? That's three-to-two, isn't it?"

"Yes," she agreed, too busy feeling worried and wringing her fingers together to even notice her attractive human drying himself off at the edge of her vision. "But there's always politics behind these things. One of the Admirals never liked the family much. He thinks of us as warmongers. It's also possible that Shala, Han, and my father all had to recuse themselves."

"What about that other one? A woman. Xen, wasn't it?" he asked, pulling on his underwear.

Tali's eyes almost popped out of her head, she felt so struck by the man's words. What about Xen, indeed? A hearing before the Admiralty Board meant having to face the senior Admirals, all of them, including Daro'Xen vas Moreh. As the captain of her temporary vessel, Jane could undoubtedly be called as a witness, free to be cross examined by the woman at her leisure. Could she have been the one to bring the charges, all in an effort to further examine her captain? Requesting Tali's presence on the Fleet by any other means wouldn't guarantee Jane's appearance. The quarian seethed with anger at the thought.

Then again, Jane was a human in the Alliance. Although Tali was no expert on the law, she felt almost certain that there was no way for the Fleet to forcefully compel a non-citizen to testify on her behalf. Without her captain's contact information, there was no way for them to request it even, unless Jane showed up in person. The simple solution was to find a way to the Fleet without using the _Normandy_. That would save mission resources anyway._ Keelah, why in the name of the ancestors did I have to send that information to her? Because there was no other way to be sure that John and Jane weren't being controlled by Cerberus. You're still not sure of that, are you, girly? Not about Jane, no..._

"_Keelah_, I don't know Xen's feelings on me or my family," she admitted. Looking for something to distract herself, she retrieved a fresh Alliance combat uniform from one of John's drawers as well as his boots, setting them on the desk next to the man.

"Why would they accuse you of treason? Do you think they found out that this isn't an Alliance ship? That you're working with Cerberus?" he casually asked as he slipped into the uniform.

"John, I'm not working with Cerberus!" she almost screamed, incensed by the very notion that she could ever be associated with those terrorists, "I'm working with _you_. You and our sister. I have no idea what they're accusing me of. You'd think I'd remember if I'd betrayed the Fleet!"

"So... Where do we go from here? What happens now?" he asked.

"Well, if I'm convicted-"

"Stop right there, Tals," he said in his command voice, immediately cutting her short, "We aren't going to talk about that. You're not guilty. You'll be found innocent, so we aren't even going to go there. You can discuss that with your lawyer if and when the time comes."

"Uh, right, sorry John," she stammered. He didn't show it, but he might have been taking this as badly as she was. The thought of it actually warmed her heart a little, even when surrounded by so much darkness. She mattered to someone, and the realization of that fact never failed to cheer her up, no matter how many times she was reminded of it. "Well, I would call Shala to see what's going on, but if someone on the fleet were monitoring the channels, she would be in trouble and I'd be in _bigger_ trouble."

"No secure lines?"

"John, we have the best hackers in the galaxy, and the fleet has a couple thousand on the payroll. If they wanted to tap my aunt's comm, there is nothing I could do to stop it," she said softly, "I just have to go there and face these charges. They've given me a month before the trial starts and concludes without me."

"We need to get this taken care of as soon as possible," he said, "I don't want this hanging over my fiancé's head like the sword of Damocles. Send Joker the coordinates. We'll leave for the Fleet as soon as Liara's situated in her new home."

"I... Well, I was, uh, going to book passage on another ship," she replied, twiddling her fingers _and_ bouncing on her toes, knowing full-well that she was radiating anxiety like a biotic flare-up, nevertheless completely unable to help herself. "I didn't think there would be time for you to help," she mumbled.

"You've got to be kidding me," he said, sounding absolutely incredulous with her proposition, "There's no way I'm letting you do this alone. None."

The giddy thrill she felt deep inside at hearing his words had just about offset the intensified nervousness she felt at the prospect of seeing Xen confront Jane. The two feelings combined for a net gain in the column of composure, reducing her fidgety behavior by a few degrees. It wasn't the end of the Fleet. Perhaps Jane would stay on the ship. She could even tell John not to mention this to his sister, but that would raise more questions that she _really_ didn't want to answer. There was also the remote possibility that Admiral Xen wouldn't bring it up at all.

She sighed, feeling truly despondent for the first time in a while. Things had been going so well. "Thank you, John."

"Hey, don't look so glum," she said, rubbing her shoulders, "If this doesn't work, out, I'll take you as a hostage at gunpoint and we'll be out of their in no time."

"If you hadn't so rudely interrupted me, you'd know that that was the punishment anyway," she smirked, "Exile. The highest possible sentence we give."

"No death penalty? No life sentences?"

"No. We don't have the resources for long-term incarceration. Forced labor is more effective. As for death, well, we don't have the population for that. An exile's children can always rejoin the Fleet."

"So what does exile mean, exactly?" he asked.

"We can never again have contact with the fleet or another quarian," she replied.

"I see why you would hate it so much. You love the Fleet," he said, nodding his head. Abruptly, he stopped. "Wait, how are they supposed to have kids if they can't even talk to another quarian?"

"We bond, remember?" she replied, "Bad things happen when we are forcefully separated from our mates. It is expected that they accompany the convict on their exile... No one would want their mate of back on the Fleet without them, anyway. A lot of people might get hurt. They get an exemption to the 'do not associate with exiles' rule."

"I'm not much of a silver lining," said the human.

"Yeah, you are," replied the quarian with the faintest hint of a smile.

...

"I'm really going to miss you and Junior," said Jane, "Especially how clean you've been keeping this place." Jane gestured about her spotless cabin. Where once there was dirty human and turian laundry piled in every corner of the room, now there was nothing but clean carpet, the exception being the ornate asari cradle near Jane's side of the bed.

"Well you know you and Garrus can stop by at any time," said Liara, "And I'll be more than happy to clean your cabin for you. Just try not to let it get too dirty between trips." Liara smiled, holding out Janie for her human mother, along with a bottle.

Jane accepted the girl and her meal. "Ha. I've got the Shadow Broker as my maid." A fairly decent maid by anyone's standards, it seemed. The Spectre hated to think what John and Tali's room looked like. He was as big a slob as Jane, and the engineer probably knew nothing about tidying up a human's living pace. She placed the bottle to her daughter's lips as the child started sucking greedily.

"And she's glad to do it," replied the asari, "You're _The _Shepard. If anyone deserved to have the Shadow Broker as their maid, it would be you."

Jane smiled at that, almost blushing. She could remember a time two years past, mere months ago from her point of view, that she would never have felt so modest about such a statement. She would have reveled in it. It was funny how death and motherhood changed one's perspective.

"Are you sure that being all alone with Junior in that ship is a wise idea?" Jane asked, "You've got quite a lot on your plate as the Broker."

"Well, you're not suggesting that you take her... Are you?"

"Well..."

"Jane, we've been over this," said Liara, sighing and renewing her efforts to pack for the inevitable move, "You and Garrus would make the best possible parents for Junior- next to me and you- but what you are doing is far too dangerous for a toddler. You know that."

"But it doesn't change things. Do you think you can handle it?" she asked.

"If I was going to be alone, then I might wonder," the asari replied, "But my dad will be there and Feron too."

"So, are you and he...?"

"Why do you ask, Shepard?" Liara actually smirked at her, something she had undoubtedly learned from her one-time human lover, "Still interested in what we had?"

"We had _sex_, Liara," She replied bluntly.

"And nothing more? Aren't you at least_ interested _in it?"

Jane rolled her eyes at the other woman. "Whether I want to do you or not is irrelevant. It's not gonna happen."

Zipping up her diaper bag, the asari frowned and took the bottle from the Spectre's hand, tucking it into a side pocket. "You know I like Garrus well enough. He's a good guy. I would be okay with a threesome relationship, if that's the issue."

"Absolutely not," she said, shaking her head vehemently, "I'm not sharing that big skull-faced bastard with anyone."

"Well then what about just us?" she asked, "Do you really think he'd mind it that much? I've met two human men and one batarian whose wives also had asari wives."

Jane had had enough of this. She passed her child off to Liara and moved to pour herself a drink. It didn't matter what Garrus thought, what Liara thought, or even what the Spectre herself thought. She was a one-turian woman now, period. Not only was she relatively certain that God frowned on polygamy- she'd have to look into that at some point- but it just felt wrong. It always lead to jealousy and hard feelings. She was thirty-one years old, pushing thirty two, technically, and long past done with that kind of drama.

"Ugh, just drop it, will you? You and I have no chance together as anything but friends. You're more likely to talk your way past Tali and into my brother's pants. This conversation is over."

"Not even for your- our- child?" Liara asked in quiet desperation.

Jane's eyes narrowed on the woman. She felt a spike of rage surging within her. "How dare you! How dare you try to use my daughter as a bargaining chip!" she hissed through clenched teeth, pointing sharply at the door, "Get the fu- Get out of my room!"

Liara nodded, her eyes closed and already appearing to regret what she had said. She turned to go, making her way up the stairs. Before she palmed the door to leave, she dropped a package off on Jane's desk.

Minutes passed while Jane fumed. Finally, she got up to examine what the biggest mistake in her life had left behind. She cursed herself for her thoughts. That woman was responsible for bringing her beloved daughter into the world, and for that, she would be forever grateful.

She opened the box, revealing two sets of N7 dog tags.

...

"Fleet control, this is SSV_ Normandy_, requesting docking approach clearance and flight vector to MFS _Rayya_, over." Joker said into the ship's comm.

Tali stood behind the seated pilot, John and Jane also crowding into the confines of the ostensibly large cockpit. Garrus and Miranda waited by the airlock, geared up and ready. The former was joining them as her direct superior on the ground team. The later individual would be joining them, against ship's protocol and much to the female Shepard's consternation, for reasons known only to herself and Tali.

"_Roger that, SSV _Normandy_, squawk ten fifty-four and IDENT, how copy?_"

Joker's hands moved deftly over the ship's haptic controls, finishing by touching a final button with flourish. "Good copy, SSV _Normandy_ squawking ten fifty-four, over."

"_We have you_, Normandy, _maintain current heading. Do not deviate. State reason for approach request._"

"We are bringing a citizen of the Migrant fleet back to her birth-ship, for, uh..." the pilot looked over his shoulder at Tali and was greeted with a somber nod, "Trial. Her name is Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya, over."

"_Understood,_ Normandy. _Please verify._"

Joker spared a quick, confused glance to the captain, mouthing something to her, undoubtedly a human profanity of some kind. Tali hastened to interject.

"Put me on the comm," she said calmly.

The human pilot tapped another control. "You're up."

The quarian cleared her still gravelly throat, secretly hoping to unnerve the traffic controller. "After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began."

John gave her shoulder a sympathetic squeeze, turning it into a full-blown hug when she failed to respond to the touch. She felt far too consumed with guilt and worry to allow herself such pleasures. She accepted the gesture though, but her body remained stiff in his embrace. Thankfully, he didn't press the issue.

"_Permission granted. Welcome home, Tali'Zorah. SSV _Normandy_, you will be escorted in. Proceed to docking cradle seventeen, how copy?_"

Joker looked to his left. A small but heavily armed gunship drew up alongside them, about a thousand meters to port and two-hundred below. "That's a good copy, control."

"_Traffic control, out._"

**I have a poll up on my profile. My first one ever. I'm asking if you think I should start a new story in another Fandom, and if so, which one? Do not worry. I will never abandon Warrior Ethos.**

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	17. Fiction (Dreams In Digital)

**I have disclaimers. Read them in Chapter one of Warrior Ethos: 2 if you're interested.**

**So my unit is deploying! Again! Good times, but not much ability to write. I will try, through.**

Chapter 17: Fiction (Dreams In Digital)

"Tali, my child!" yelled a quarian from down the corridor.

John's attention turned to a dark-suited quarian woman as she rushed to greet his fiancé and the quartet of outsiders in her midst. Suit aside, she could have been a dead-ringer for his engineer, not that that fact spoke much about her relationship with the young woman. Quarians, like virtually all other non-human member of the galactic community, showed little in the way of genetic variation. Regardless, John could safely assume that this was the famous Shala'Raan, Tali's surrogate aunt who had been as much a mother to her as her biological one.

"I am glad you came now," she said, "I could delay them only so long."

"Auntie Shala!" Tali yelped, "John'Shepard vas Normandy, this is Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay. She's my aunt, and a friend of my fathers."

"Yes, I know who John is, and there will be time for introductions later" Shala sputtered in a single hurried breath. She grabbed Tali's hand and pulled her along down the corridor, towards a large antechamber. "Captain Kar'Danna filled you in on the nature of the charges, but there is more..."

Tali hurried along side her, her attention now fully on the distressed woman.

"I was debating whether or not to tell you this, but it seems you've arrived in time to perhaps do something about it," she said.

"What is it?" the young woman asked.

"Your father's ship, the _Alarei..._ We've lost all contact with it. There is a jamming field in place. That is where the geth outbreak has been isolated."

Tali stopped for the briefest moment, almost tugging the other quarian to a halt with her. An instant later she broke into a full sprint down the corridor. "We need to get to a shuttle, now," she called over her shoulder.

"Admiral, they gave us thirty days to arrive," said John, "I think you can spare us some more time to handle this."

"Indeed. Kal'Reegar took his platoon aboard the ship almost half an hour ago," said Shala, "We cannot communicate with them either, but they just sent a scout back to request reinforcements. It's bad. We don't have real-time status updates..."

"Right. We better move quickly," said Jane, breaking into a jog after Tali.

Garrus followed right behind her, slapping the male Shepard on the back as he passed. Miranda shrugged and quickly followed suit. As John brought up the rear with Shala behind him, the group crossed into the courtyard and he heard the admiral calling out a motion to delay the trial. A second quarian woman, sporting what sounded through his translator like a sultry voice with a rich English accent, immediately seconded the motion. A third quarian, his voice gruff and masculine but with a similar accent, carried it. John barely heard a small grumble of discontent from yet a fourth speaker before he ran out of earshot, down another corridor in the direction his group had been travelling.

"Black Knight Six to _Normandy_," John said into his comm.

"_Go ahead, Commander_," replied Jacob.

"Have Samara put another team together. I'll transmit rendezvous coordinates shortly."

...

"Thank the ancestors you're here, Shepard, and you brought Tali and some friends. You sure took your sweet ass time, though."

"Good to see you too, Kal," the Spectre replied, "Don't sound too disappointed. Seera." The human gave to female marine a curt nod as he slid to a kneeling halt beside the red-suited pair; although almost none of their ubiquitous attire could be seen from beneath the many kilograms of body armor and tactical gear they wore. He, Tali, and the other two quarians huddled together behind a heavy metal work-bench, under cover from a geth prime as it raked the trio with withering fire. John gave his shields a few moments to recharge after the mad dash for the quarians' position.

"Ready to suppress?" he asked Kal and Seera, receiving a nod from the marine lieutenant and his aide. The Spectre gave a thumbs-up, directed at Garrus' position where he stacked against the doorframe leading into the large workshop. The former C-Sec officer passed the simple hand-sign back to Jane and Miranda where they stood behind him.

The turian waited the few agonizingly long seconds for the prime to fill its thermal magazine, all the while John kneeled at the ready, counting each of the thudding footfalls from the bipedal land-frigate. It had been about ten meters away when he had idiotically charged in alone, his instinct at seeing Kal and Seera pinned down. The geth construct could cover about one-and-a-half meters in a single step. He had counted seven heavy footfalls from the beast, each sounding closer and more reverberating than its predecessor. That meant...

Garrus roared, "Cover me while I-" he stopped himself short, "_**Stay down!**_"

It was too late. John's military instincts had been too ingrained, too reinforced and hardwired through years of training. As soon as he had heard his executive's request to provide cover fire, he brought his weapon to bear. The compensator of his Revenant now rested less than a centimeter from a pulse canon's giant muzzle, large enough for him to jam the entire barrel of his weapon inside, if he so desired.

Having approximately zero minutes to think it over, he did exactly that. He harnessed all the strength he had in his cybernetic body, channeling it into one momentous thrust, he rammed the barrel of his weapon into the geth's. At about the same instant, the beast pulled the trigger.

Tali had no time to either tackle him or pull him out of the way; she was caught meters apart and mid-pounce when it happened. Jane had tried the only thing she knew to do when the excrement hit the fan. She had charged the behemoth, hoping to knock it over it before it harmed her brother. Garrus had been pushing towards a covered position, doing his beast to draw the fire of the smaller geth reinforcements and away from his two best friends and his girlfriend. Miranda hadn't even swung the corner into the room when the explosion rocked everyone in the area.

The prime's pulse cannon detonated the instant it was triggered, it's payload impacting John's weapon at relativistic speeds. It sundered everything within a two meter radius into a high-velocity, super-heated hailstorm of charred flesh, metal, and steam.

The concussive blast had struck Jane mid-leap, knocking her up against the deck above them before releasing her to the artificial gravity's hold. She fell like a rag-doll to the work-bench that he and the quarians had taken cover behind. The concussive wave had flung Tali backwards and to the ground, dazing the girl but otherwise leaving her unharmed. Kal and Seera were left stunned but also mostly unaffected.

The prime itself had lost both arms, the upper halves of its extremities imbedding themselves in opposite bulkheads, while the lower halves had been completely vaporized. The overhanging portion of its head, what most referred to as its 'flashlight,' had been bent upwards at an odd angle, as if it stared blindly up at the ceiling, the light leaving its eye behind shattered glass. It was an armless statue of Nike, left broken and contemplating the sky in crippled defeat.

Miranda and Garrus reached their initial position, but the necessity of taking cover had passed. All of the smaller geth had been destroyed, and the combat effectiveness of the prime had been reduced to within tolerable levels. Either dead or accepting its defeat, it fell to its knees and remained motionless. The human and turian moved to the pair of Spectres as fast as humanly, and turianly, possible, medi-gel finding its way into hands and talons before either could register it on a conscious level.

"Whaa... Why can't I theel ny hands?" John mumbled, "Oh God, I can't theel ny thace either... Oh God, this is thad, isn't it...?"

...

Still gathering her wits in the aftermath of the blast, John's words jolted Tali into reality like a shot of pure d-epinephrine to the heart. Claws digging for purchase inside her boots, toes clambering against the deck to propel her body in his direction, she bounded to his side and reached him before anyone else, faster even than Kal and Seera who had been the closest to him.

She physically recoiled at what she saw, a scream stifled behind tightly clenched teeth. It came out as a loud, choked moan through her nose. In the back of her mind, she registered that Jane had sat up with the help of Garrus and Miranda and begun moving to her brother's side.

"Ith is thad, isn't it?" John asked again, reaching for his face. His hands started for his lips, perhaps trying to shed some light onto his speech impediment.

For a second time, his words jolted Tali. How she could be stunned, even for an instant, into standing there submissively, to not render aide immediately, was beyond her. No, she had actually _recoiled_ away from him. No matter what someone looked like, failing to render immediate aid to a team-mate was borderline unforgivable. When that team-mate also happened to be her _inszel_... She opened and closed her right had, the hand that failed to save John two years ago. The engineer would be punching bulk-heads for a solid hour tonight. _No. Two hours. At least. Until they have to tape my fist to my weapon._

She caught his... _hands_... an instant before he could make contact with his face, although he probably wouldn't have been able to feel anything anyway. That wasn't the danger. It was that he might see what they had done to him. Knowing it intellectually was one thing, but actually coming face-to-face with the cold, articulated, cera-metallic proof was another matter entirely.

"I can't theel your hands either..." he said to her, "How thad an I?"

"Don't move," she said, placing a hand on his forehead, a part of him that had been left relatively undamaged. "Please don't move. You could be injured internally. Let me scan you. I'm right here and I'm doing everything I can for you, you know that."

That was mostly true. Only the part about internal injuries had been a bald-faced lie. There would be none.

"Are you in any pain?" she asked him. It was likely that he wasn't, not only because his hard suit could block those signals, but also for fairly obvious reasons. One needed at least a few remaining nerves to feel pain. She had seen this once before in a exceptionally bad burn victim, a marine who had been set on fire by a vorcha with a flame thrower. He hadn't been in any pain before he died. Ironically, he just felt cold, very cold.

"No, no not at all," he replied, struggling to sit up, "Uare's my helmet? Don't uant to contaninate the shit. Sorry, I neant the _shit_. _Shiiiit_. Uell, shit then. Uat's the hell's wrong uith ne?"

Tali held on to his _hands_ a little tighter while Miranda and Garrus pumped him full of medi-gel. She didn't stop them, as useless the gesture was. It would probably do nothing for him but make him as hyper as an _ialira_ on stims.

"Looks like your helmet was blown clean off, buddy," Garrus whispered to him, "Miranda has a spare mask for you, I think."

"Thine, thine, give it here," said John. Naturally, he reached a hand out to the dark-haired woman.

Unlike almost any woman in the galaxy, let alone one with her air of sophistication, the sight before her left Miranda completely unaffected. Indeed, she had a hint of a smile on her face, probably from satisfaction over the obvious durability of her handiwork.

"Of course," she replied, placing the spare mask in his palm.

Tali had been too distracted by the diagnostics her omni-tool had been running on John's systems, releasing her grasp on his fingers to adjust her tool's haptic controls. She noticed his arm reaching up for Miranda the instant John noticed it himself.

"Uat. The. Thuck."

"So that's what we look like underneath?" asked Jane, flexing her fingers before her face, "Pretty cool. You sure you're okay bro?"

Mask in hand, John brought it to his face, examining his digits after donning the protective article. He hopped to his feet, waiving off Tali's concerned attempt to help him. He brought a hand to chin, then his cheeks. "Yeah... Thine... So, uh, uat does ny thace look like? I can't theel anything."

"Yeah, that's probably a good thing," said Jane, "You look fucking awesome. And really, _really_, hideous."

Tali cocked her head to the side and glared at her big sister. This was _not_ what John needed to hear right now. He needed to be medivaced as soon as possible, the better to deal with any potential infections. The rest of ground team would be arriving soon enough; she could move forward into the _Alarei_ with Jane and Garrus while Miranda waited here with him. _Or maybe I should wait here with John while they moved into the ship to rescue Father. But I'm the best one to fight against the geth... But my mate needs me... Ancestors, what do I do?_

"Don't glare at me like that," Jane said to her, smirking, "He'll find out when he pulls out a shaving mirror to figure out why he can't pick his nose anymore."

John gave her a confused look, cocking one eyebrow up.

"'Cause it's _gone_," she said, "Along with all the flesh from your cheeks to your chin and everything in between. You look like the Terminator. But a black gunmetal color, criss-crossed with glowing red lines, not chrome. Same color as your robot-arms. Also, your teeth are scorched black."

"Doctor Chakwas and I will have you as good as new in no time," said Miranda, "And I'm sure Tali has a abrasive buffing tool you can use to clean your teeth. Good thing you had your mouth closed when the blast hit. Your tongue would have been incinerated alone with the rest of your soft tissue."

Again, Tali's own thoughts disgusted her. When Miranda had mentioned his tongue, she had automatically thought of kissing him. Her eyes meeting his face, she again saw his exposed nasal cavities, his charred teeth with no lips to shield them, nothing to press hers against. She cringed at the thought of being intimate with this skeletal _machine_ and she truly hated herself for it.

"Nission thirst," said John. He pulled his Incisor sniper rifle from off his back, exchanging its scope for a close-combat optic, a back-up one that projected a holographic cross-hairs above the weapon. This was one he wouldn't need to integrate into his helmet's systems. "Ue don't have tine thor this."

As the team moved forward to the adjacent corridor, leading to the research area of the ship, Tali heard a mechanical warbling behind her. She turned, seeing the faintest fluttering of head-petals from the blinded and truncated prime. A rage boiled within her, the likes of which was something she had rarely ever felt before. It was a pure, burning hatred, a malice from the deepest most stygian depths of the blackest part of her soul.

What she felt wasn't instinctual in the slightest. It wasn't the rage associated with combat or fighting, the basest and most intense of which was reserved for when harm was directed at her mate. By all accounts, he was in no immediate danger at this moment, and certainly not from this prime in particular. What fomented within her was the calm and calculated surrender of all that was good within her to a growing and ever-hungering evil. She fed it on memories of what the geth had done to her in the past, to her people, to Kaidan, to her team on Freedom's Progress, to the many human colonists, and now to John. The hatred multiplied to encompass all of her being as she felt giddy with the anticipation of the kill.

She hoped the creature was screaming inside, begging for deliverance in its blinded and helpless state. She wished the thing was alive, that it wasn't the synthetic construct that it was, that it had a soul that she could burn in the stillborn heart of human Hell. Curious, she activated her omni-tool and initiated a hack to decode the thing's acoustic noises. She was _very_ glad she had done that. A string of repeating text appeared on her haptic display.

"_Platform Third of Five: status: platform damage critical. Hostile organics in immediate vicinity. Addendum: Creator Lilith in immediate vicinity: exercise extreme caution on approach. Addendum: active geth within Unit Third of Five undergoing high-level discomfort. Consensus: termination of active geth within Platform Third of Five inevitable without assistance: please assist us._"

Tali gave a wicked grin, a terrifying rictus that would have sent a chill down the spine of anyone who could have had the misfortune to actually see it. It seemed that the geth felt something akin to pain, and perhaps they even feared deactivation. Or at least they communicated like they did. She hoped it was true, but down inside she knew they were just lifeless hunks of metal. Either way, killing this thing would have to suffice. For now.

She typed a short message into her omni-tool, something she knew this thing, and all the other things aboard this ship, would understand.

"_Active geth within Platform Third of Five: prepare for immediate termination. Active geth within Alarei: prepare for immediate termination. Addendum: Creator Lilith will kill you all. Addendum: no mercy: no survivors._"

She savored the creature's electronic scream after she hit the 'send' button, a moment later smashing the barrel of her shotgun through its darkened, partially shattered glass 'eye.' She released a contented sigh as she pulled the trigger.

...

"Wow, you assholes couldn't have waited until we got here to party?"

"Moment is inopportune, Jack," said Mordin, pointing towards something on the ground.

She followed his finger with her gaze, seeing a distraught purple-suited quarian kneeling next to the body of a quarian male, an admiral, by his rank insignia.

"Oh, shit." the biotic adept mumbled, stepping to one side of the woman. She knew what was going on here. The message had come down from Samara. Tali's dad, an admiral, was in deep shit and might be dead for all they knew, would definitely be dead if they couldn't move quickly. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened.

Jack wasn't sure what she was going to do, wasn't even sure if she _should_ do anything. John and Jane were both there, standing with their backs to her, the former now pulling Tali to her feet, hugging her, whispering words into whatever passed for the girl's ears on her suit.

But something was off. The commander's fiancé was normally so very clingy, would be especially so at a time like this, but she appeared physically distant at the moment. She was practically stiff-arming him, in fact. Jack walked around to the front of the pair, intending to say hello to the Boyscout, the Butcher, and the Princess. Maybe Tali grieved differently for different people depending-

"_What the fuck did you let __**happen **__to him?!_" Jack screamed to no one in particular, unable to stop herself.

"Cyborgs, remember?" said Jane, "Miri says he'll be healed up in no time, as soon as we get back to the ship."

The captain had tried and failed to draw the convict's attention away from her brother. Jack took a step closer to him as Tali practically pried herself away from the man. Still fixated on the male Spectre, Jack barely registered the quarian's behavior with sneer of disdain. _She can't really be that shallow, can she? I think it's pretty damn cool... and I've got an idea for a new tattoo._

Tali went back to her father and knelt at his side, appearing to search over the body. Jack couldn't blame her for that, if she had known her dad and he had died, lord knows how the fuck she might behave. She followed her, kneeling down next to the her, placing a hand on her shoulder, still unsure of what to say. _Remember the good times you had with him? I'm sorry your dad is dead? At least you got to know him? Eh, whatever. I'll just settle for this and hope she doesn't snark at me._

Tali looked up at her, showing brief surprise before turning back to her search. Jane exchanged a few words with Johnny before joining the pair on Tali's other side. The two women held hands as they looked over the body, apparently for some kind of message, Jack now understood. She took the two women's sisterly intimacy as her cue to exit.

Standing, the convict walked over to the injured Spectre. She appraised him carefully as he watched his fiancé's search with interest. She took a step closer to him, finally garnering his notice.

"Thritty disgusting, huh?" he asked her.

"I dunno, Boyscout, I kinda like it," she replied, running her fingertips delicately along his exposed metallic jaw. "Can you feel that?" she asked.

"No."

"Too bad."

"Tali is tretty threaked out by it," he said, "She doesn't ethen uant to look at ne."

"So the girl in the suit can't see past looks, huh?" she asked rhetorically, "Her loss."

"Cone on, its not like that."

"Meh, maybe. Probably just doesn't want to be reminded of what happened to you two years ago." Jack gave him a shrug and turned to the other women, now examining a holo of the engineer's father.

"Uhy, it sounds like you're dethending her," said John.

Even without lips, Jack picked up the smile in his voice. "Yeah, well, Princess' old man just died, so I think I'll lay off trying to fuck you and belittle her until tomorrow."

...

"How do I sound now?" asked John

"Good enough," said Jane.

"Like a quarian, but a damn sight better than you sounded a second ago," said Zaeed, giving the other man a pat on the back.

"Thanks for letting me use your mask," John said to the mercenary.

"It's no problem. Just glad I can understand you now," he replied, "We'll see you back on the _Normandy_, then. Are you sure there won't be anymore combat? What if this trial doesn't go your way?"

"That won't happen. Jane, Tali, Garrus, Miranda, and I got this. And Tali, thanks for coding this helmet's software so quickly," the Spectre said, addressing Tali.

"Of course," she replied, "It was nothing. I just took some existing speech software we use and adjusted it to your language. I'm just glad it was able to adapt to your, uh, speech impediment. I think you look a lot better now, by the way."

"I can tell."

"Sorry," she replied, looking down and away, letting her fingers interlace and dance with each other. She did feel really terrible about this, about the way she was treating him like a pariah. She couldn't help it. It was all too much, the emotions were overwhelming. Especially now that she knew for sure her father was with the ancestors. She felt her mask's dehumidifier activating for what felt like the twelfth time that day.

John turned to her as they walked together towards the courtyard, "So why didn't Lia show up?" he asked, "Didn't she want to visit her people?"

"She did, yes," Tali replied, "But even though she gave her gift already, she is still technically on pilgrimage and cannot return until it is over. If she comes back any earlier, the conclave will take a week to decide where to place her, even if they station her back aboard the _Normandy_. She doesn't want to take that much time away until after the mission."

"Tali, it is interesting that you bring that up," said Shala, catching up to the group from behind, "There is something you should know. Your name is Tali'Zorah vas Normandy now. While you were away, saving Kal, Seera, and the _Alarei_, the Admiralty board moved to make the change given your departure from the _Neema_."

"They did?" John asked, "Admiral, aren't you one of those judges?"

"I'm afraid not. My history with Tali and her father forced me to recuse myself."

"I imagine Father would have had to do the same," said Tali. Either that or he would have been the one on trial. It's hard to guess even in hindsight. Would he have faced the board himself, or left his only child take the fall for him? Tali was his own daughter, and even she didn't know for sure.

Shala gave her a quizzical look during the long pause before her response. "I imagine that if he were here, _and you were still the one on trial_, then yes, he would recuse himself as well. I will be taking his place as chairwoman of the admiralty board. I will moderate and make sure the rules of protocol are followed, but I have no vote in the judgment."

"I guess we should get started," said John, "Does Tali have a defense attorney? Someone who speaks for her side?"

"Indeed she does, Commander Shepard." Shala gave a significant glace to the man's sister, gone unnoticed by everyone else in the area save for Tali, and surprisingly, John. "She is part of your crew now, recognized by quarian law."

...

John didn't like the sound of what Shala had said and the way she said it. Tali didn't like it either, judging by the way she shot Jane a glance, then turned back to Shala with wide glowing eyes, before looking back to Jane. Three more times she did that in such quick succession, that the human would have sworn she was trying to spin her head from her shoulders.

Jane could also tell something was amiss. With a cocked eyebrow, she moved in close to the trio and placed an arm around Tali's shoulders. Despite the quarian's taller stature, she looked positively small next to her armored captain.

"What's going on?" the human woman asked.

"The accused is always represented by his or her captain," the admiral replied.

"Bollocks."

"Excuse me?" asked the older woman.

"You heard me," said the Spectre, "There's at least fifty thousand people on this ship. You mean to tell me that every time someone has to go to trial, they're represented by their _captain_? Who commands the ship while he spends every waking hour in court?"

"Captain Shepard, I must protest your attitude," the quarian said, her temper starting to break through the somber veneer she wore.

Tali tried to shrink back, but Jane held the woman firmly in her grasp about the shoulders. It must have felt like a student's mother and her teacher getting into a verbal sparring match, with the poor child having to stand there and watch.

"Protest all you want," replied Jane with a smirk, "You don't have a vote, and even if you did, there's nothing I could say or do that would have you voting against someone you care so much about."

"True enough, nor would I protest her bond with your brother," Shala let the subtle threat linger for a moment, "But I might have her orders for you mission rescinded."

John's gaze narrowed on the older woman. His sister said nothing. She would know when she was beat, when to keep her mouth shut. She wouldn't risk upsetting Tali like that, nor the mission against the collectors, for any such fleeting pleasantries as punching his soon-to-be semi-mother-in-law in the head.

The admiral reminded John of his actual mother in a way, if the dreadnaught captain were twice as polite, half as blunt, and covered in a full-body suit.

"You, see, Captain," continued the quarian, "This rule only applies to our fleet brothers and sisters that are accused of crimes that are deemed grievous enough to warrant a hearing by the Admiralty Board. Those are very infrequent occurrences. We quarians are also quite mindful of our community and the impact our actions have on others. As a result, the Migrant Fleet has _the_ lowest crime rate in the galaxy, per capita."

"So, what if there's someone better than the captain at legal matters? Someone who was kinda trained for this?" She gave her brother a sidelong glance, receiving a nod by way of response.

"No training is required. This is not like some human crime drama," the faintest hint of a smile graced her lips, betrayed by the slight narrowing of her eyes at the corners, "There is no legal language or loopholes. None but the most basic procedures to follow, and I will guide you in that. It is very informal, like a difficult sort of family gathering. Just speak your case, nothing more. But as much as I wish to stress that it is your duty to defend your crew. You must say something on her behalf or it will look very bad for her. Of course you may also have anyone else speak that you wish."

"Alright, I'll be calling my brother as Tali's first character witness," replied the human.

"Again, Captain, this isn't a human court. You may phrase it like that if it makes you feel better, but when we get there, just tell them you want John to speak and why he should be allowed to do so. As her bondmate and her commander, he is entitled to do that on two counts."

"Is mentioning that I'm her bondmate wise?" asked John, "I've heard that some on the fleet have a negative view of the galactic community."

"_Somewhat_ is an understatement, Commander. But humans get a pass more often than not. You weren't the ones keeping us from colonizing any new worlds," she gave a brief but pointed look to Garrus, something that again went unnoticed by all but John and Tali, "And Han and I already know about you two."

"And how do you and Han feel about it?" John asked, "and what about the other Admirals?"

"During your time away, Tali spoke the Fleet of you. It helps that you earned the Heart of Kaeli'steiz, but I don't forgive you for dying on her."

"It was hardly my choice."

"Perhaps not, but if you were going to take a mate, you should have considered resigning your commission or at least put in for transfer to a simple office or research job. You should be rearing children-" Shala stopped abruptly. Apparently she had said something that left a bitter taste in her mouth. John guessed it was her remark about children. This was neither the time nor the place to be reminding Tali about the fact that she would never be bearing him any. "The point is, Han and I had a lot of time to learn to see you in a different light, as someone that is good for Tali's interests. I approve of this union, albeit grudgingly..." She couldn't help herself from eyeing Jane at that.

"Han and I will not be swayed negatively by the fact that you are bonded to Tali," the woman continued, "The others, well, Zaal is so liberal-minded when it comes to the geth that I cannot imagine him having an issue with Admiral Zorah's daughter bonding to a human. It will probably win points with him, in fact, knowing that Rael might have had an issue with it. As for Xen, well... Speculating about her will do us no good. But rumor has it that she is herself bonded to a human male. She makes quite a lot of trips to the fringes of human space and has even been heard conversing in your language to someone on the real-time comm system."

John suddenly felt bad. Knowing that some weirdo admiral could converse in English or some other human tongue while he knew next to nothing of Khelish rubbed him the wrong way. He just had not had the time to learn, what with waging a private war against an impossible enemy. On the other hand, Tali knew no English whatsoever, so at least the situation was mutual. It made for some very interesting bedroom games. He spared a moment to look over at his fiancé. She appeared to be seething over just the same thought that had occurred to him.

"Interesting," John muttered loudly to no one in particular, "I have heard quite a few rumors about her."

"Indeed," said Shala.

"So, Jane, are you okay with speaking in my defense?" the younger quarian asked her captain.

"I'll do everything in my power to honor your wishes, Tali," she replied. She had not exactly answered the question, but the meaning had been clear. Exonerated or not, Rael was not getting posthumously exiled and stricken from the ships' rolls.

"And you, John?" Tali asked him.

"Of course."

"Thank you both. I could not ask for better representation," she said.

"Come," said Shala, motioning the group forward with a hand, "I have kept you waiting long enough. Let us be done with this dreadful matter."

"A moment, if you please, Admiral Raan," John said to her just as she began to depart for the center of the garden atrium, "I wish to confer with accused in private."

"Fine," sighed Shala, "Just be very quick about it. Time is not on our side."

John opened a private channel between himself, Tali, Garrus, Miranda, and Jane. He brought them in close for a conspiratorial huddle out of habit. "So here's the deal. Tals, were you delivering those parts back in eighty-one?"

"No, I wasn't even on pilgrimage yet," she replied.

"Okay, well, Seera got blasted in the head with a chunk of metal from a geth. It came from a building occupied by some mercs. When close air support came in, it sent pieces of those things flying everywhere. I kept one. I have it on me."

"That's right, I remember you hit a merc base, it's where you got the Heart of Kaeli'steiz," said Jane, "But what does geth on some remote planet have to do with active geth being sent here?"

"That was a clandestine mission over a mining and factory world. We took fire from orbit," he replied, a glint in his eye.

"So...?" asked Tali, "Oh. _Ooooh..._" Understanding dawned on the girl, her grip tightening on John's shoulder.

"So it had to be an inside job," said Jane, no stranger to the concept of spaceborne insertion techniques.

"But the only people who know about missions like that are the Admirals," said Tali, "You're not suggesting...?"

"He doesn't have to," said Garrus. John retrieved a chunk of destroyed geth from his pocket and held it in between the group, while the turian continued, "All he has to do is demonstrate in front of everyone that there was an internally compromised mission that involved capturing and storing of the geth, and that it was before you had anything to do with sending parts to the fleet. It's enough for reasonable doubt."

"But we'd be morons to think they hadn't swept that under the rug already," said Miranda.

"True, but we're unsweeping it," John replied, "All those people in the crowd? There's no way they can ignore it. I still have some footage and the AAR from that mission, signed by a Migrant Fleet Marine battalion commander. It would also help if we could get Seera and Kal back here for this."

"On it," replied Garrus, "You guys go ahead and I'll go grab them. It would probably be best if I weren't seen with you guys anyway."

Before the group started for the large meeting area, Jane turned back to her boyfriend. Resting her hands on his shoulders, she leaned in to rest her forehead against his. "Thanks. I love you."

"That's good, because I love you too."

Jane smiled and rejoined the rest of the group, already striding confidently to down the corridor. They had gotten no more than a few feet from where they had started before John heard a quarian squeak of surprise.

Tali stopped dead in her tracks.

"What's up?" he asked, following his best guess as to where she was looking. He saw her, a black-suited woman wearing the same rank insignia as Shala wore. "That's Daro'Xen, right?"

Tali nodded blankly, never taking her eyes off the woman. As the admiral caught sight of their group, she excused herself from whatever conversation she was having, making her way towards them as quickly as her elegance would allow. The engineer's reaction was interesting, to say the least. She squeezed John's gloved hand hard, he could only assume, and released it, moving to meet the older woman halfway. The Spectre could hear their conversation, but just barely. He turned up his helmet's audio pick-ups and listened hard.

"...more comfortable discussing this with you in private, Ma'am," said Tali.

Xen acted as if she hadn't even heard the girl and kept walk towards the twins and Garrus.

Coming to a stop before the humans, she offered a hand in greeting. "It is an honor to have the Shepard Twins, heroes of the Alliance and the Fleet, Saviors of the Citadel, penultimate accomplishments of projects Lazarus and Galatea, aboard-"

"Enough!" yelled Tali, sidestepping between her _inszel_ and the other quarian, almost pushing the dark-suited woman back with the force of her movement.

"You forget yourself, Lieutenant!" Xen shouted her down, "You will stand at attention when in the presence of a superior officer, or has all that time planet-side made you forget all the discipline your father instilled in you?"

Tali snapped to attention before the other woman, giving her such a visceral glare as John had never seen before. Not when confronting Samara, not when she had been so mad at him only a few days ago, and not even when she had emptied two whole thermal magazines into the body of the asari eclipse mercenary who had played nice before almost taking his head off.

"No, Ma'am," shouted Tali, her eyes and head facing forward, never breaking position.

"Good. Now, I have an offer of sorts for you," she said to Jane, "You will be quite aware that Lieutenant Zorah has provided me the details of your recovery operation, and shall we say, inner workings-"

John tried hard to ignore the very audible grinding noise that Tali's teeth were making.

"-and I would like to take a look at you," she finished, looking Jane squarely in the eyes. She brought a three-fingered hand up to his sister's visored face, gently pantomiming moving a few locks of hair aside before softly caressing her armored cheek.

"Oh God, you're not going to ask to fuck me, are you?" asked the Spectre, folding her arms across her chest.

The quarian was not taken aback in the lightest. It was if she hadn't even heard the comment. She simply kept rubbing on the captain's armor above the woman's reddening cheek. It seemed to fascinate her. "No, my dear. Someone is already servicing me quite satisfactorily in that area. I only wish to connect a little wire to the auxiliary bus port in the back of that beautiful skull of yours. Five minutes is all I require of your time."

"How do I know you won't try to fry my brains or something?" Jane asked, disbelief written on her face, "Or do what Cerberus was kind enough not to do, and control me?"

"Ah, yes, well, you can easily verify that data will only be transferring one way," said the admiral, moving her fingers over the human's armor and to the base of her skull. She seemed to be enjoying the sensation of the touch. "From you to my omni-tool. The Lieutenant will be there to supervise, won't you?" she asked Tali.

"If it happens at all, _ma'am_, which it _won't_..." The other quarian finished expressing her assent with a forced grunt, adding a bitter nod for good measure. She was showing a remarkable amount of restraint, in John's opinion, and so was Jane, for that matter. Knowing his sister, she could be anywhere from infuriated and silently planning Xen's death, to quite turned-on. In any event, Jane at least managed to give the appearance of being remarkably indifferent to the whole affair.

"I'm just curious about what's going on in there," Xen replied, gently tapping the side of the human woman's head.

"And what do we get if we go along with it?" she asked.

"I will vote for Miss vas Normandy's acquittal," Xen said simply, "Han is already voting that way, to be sure. So, my dearest human darling, you get a sister-in-law who isn't exiled without having to reveal anything distasteful..."

"Deal," said Jane, stepping back, away from the woman.

"Oh, that was easy, I hadn't expected you to reach a consensus so soon," said the admiral, looking directly at the human female.

John chuckled aloud, drawing glances from his compatriots and the admiral. As if Jane would have bothered consulting with the rest of the team once she had made her mind up about something. That was especially true when the negative ramifications of her decision would only effect her, and not the rest of her crew.

He shared a glance with Jane. Tali ground her teeth even louder than before, so loud that it carried not only through their comm channel, but through her vocalizer as well. He was almost afraid that she might actually break a few of them off.

"I had a whole speech prepared and everything," said Xen, "Do you have any curiosity as to why I want this information?" She asked, finally letting her hand fall away from the Spectre, "Why I want it from you, and not your brother? No doubt that has risen up in you over the nature of my request?"

"Nope. Don't care," Jane said with finality, "You get Tali off free and clear, and I'll let you plug stuff into my head with her watching. That's all the fucks I have to give."

"I see, Captain. No self-doubt. Interesting. Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum," she said before finally turning to leave.

"What's that supposed to mean?" called Garrus, walking to the group. He gave them a nod as he drew closer, letting them know Kal and Seera would be there momentarily.

His comment took the words right out of John's mouth. What she had said sounded human, like it could have been one of the thousands of languages native to the human homeworld. His translator had only the most commonly spoken galactic languages and whatever the admiral had said wasn't resolving into anything the device could make use of. Although it did sound familiar somehow.

"Such curiosity, my dear turian," she said, taking a few paces toward him. For an instant, he shrunk away in her presence before regaining his confidence. No one could blame him. The woman simply radiated a profound air of equal and parts menace and grace. "It means only this: Credule, quid frustra simulacra fugacia captas? Quod petis, est nusquam; quod amas, avertere, perdes. Ista repercussae, quam cernis, imaginis umbra est: nil habet ista sui. Now come with me, all of you. We have tarried long enough. The trial will not start without me, of course, but it may start without you."

Tali, John, and Jane approached the witness podium, while Miranda, Kal, and Seera took seats just behind them. Garrus took a seat all the way in the back, looking like a hurt dog nursing a wound.

"Sorry we're late," said Tali, her voice dripping with sarcasm and attitude.

John heard his sister sigh. He knew she hated public speaking, and absolutely despised doing it in front of high-ranking military officials.

"Admirals, we have retaken the _Alarei_," his sister began, "So I move that that this trial be dismissed and-"

"Seconded," said Xen, sounding as if she still couldn't muster the effort to care about anything around her.

"What?" shouted Koris, "Over simply killing some geth? Why is that good enough?"

"All is favor?" asked Shala.

"Because fuck you, that's why," Jane said to the irate board member.

"And I don't have time for any of this dreary business," offered Daro.

"Aye," said Han.

"Nay! Absolutely nay!" screamed Zaal'Koris, managing to fog up the inside of his visor so badly that John could see it even from where he stood ten meters away.

"The motion carries," said Shala, "Case dismissed. Captain Shepard, please accept these gifts in appreciation for you taking the time to represent one of our people."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, I didn't represent one of your people," Jane said, "I represented one of mine."

John stood there dumbfounded. He had been war-gaming defense strategies since he head heard Tali was being brought up on charges of treason. He had even had it in the back of his mind while in combat, something he probably shouldn't have been doing. Having it end like this was a huge relief, yes, but it was also a let-down in a way.

He wanted to bring up the Geth parts he and Kal had discovered on Talis Fia and how their mission had been compromised, despite having been only privy to the members of the Admiralty Board. He wanted to imply that a traitor might have been in their midst. He had his suspicions as to who that might be, but the current members of the board might feel differently. It would be nothing for them to blame the dead, and perhaps dig a little deeper into Rael's research to prove their case. That couldn't be allowed to happen, so he would keep quiet.

The Spectre didn't think for a second that it had been Rael who was responsible for that particular incident. He might have been experimenting on geth, true, but even going off of what he knew of him from Tali, he didn't strike the commander as the kind of man that would lay waste to an entire Farseeker platoon to keep his secret.

...

"_How did it go?_"

"Fine, my love," said Daro, "I am forwarding you the recovered data now."

The quarian admiral leaned back in her comfortable, antique leather chair and plugged a tube of dextro bourbon into her mask's hydration port. It felt strange, bonding did. It was a first for her, at times it felt joyous beyond all reasoning and imagination, at other times it was strained and painful, but in a good way, such as at moments like these. He was on the other side of the galaxy, and she was here, unnaturally apart from him. She needed to be next to him, to hold him, to love him, to protect him. Were she able to get away with it, she would simply have kidnapped and held him with her aboard the _Moreh_ and be done with the whole business of courtship.

"The data proves the success of Galatea. We can keep the process rolling," she said, "When can I see you again?"

"_Whenever you want. You know where I am."_

"Don't be such a stupid primate."

"_We can't all be as smart as you. You're welcome here any time, but since you still wish to be so secretive, then we can meet at our usual spot. I think I have some vacation time coming up in about a week."_

"Excellent, my love. And you are not one to talk about being so secretive. Since when did you want to 'us' getting out, anyway?" Idly, she brought a hand to her nether regions and turned up her nerve-stim program, preparing herself for the holo-sex that would soon commence.

"_Lets just say that you aren't my first alien-_"

"Bastard." She _hated_ it when he brought up his exes and he knew it. He did it simply to tease her into a reaction, and it always seemed to work. She made a mental note to make him pay for that remark the next time they met in person.

"_-And you have done wonders in opening my eyes to the rest of the galaxy. Well, when it comes to _one_ other species, anyway._"

"So are we going to do this, or what?" she growled, "Talk dirty to me."

...

Miranda's omni-tool chimed, letting her know she had an incoming call. She sat up and answered it.

"_Hey Miri, can I talk to you for a minute? In person?_"

"Of course, Garrus," she replied. The former Cerberus operative had a feeling as to what this was about. The captain hadn't seemed the slightest bit concerned about Daro'Xen and her part on the Migrant Fleet, instead focusing all her attention on Tali's trial and the loss of the poor girl's father. The executive wasn't sure if that was her just being a good captain, or something more sinister operating behind the scenes. John might have been just as curious as Garrus, but at the moment he was otherwise occupied in the medbay for obvious reasons. "Where do you want to meet?"

"_Your office is fine_."

"Works for me. Where are you now?" she asked.

"_Right outside your door_."

Climbing off Jacob's lap, she turned to the armorer, "We'll have to finish this later."

"You know where to find me," he replied, pulling his top back on.

Miranda strolled to the door and palmed it open the instant the room's other occupant made himself presentable.

"I- Sorry, I'm interrupting, aren't I?" Garrus asked as soon as he noticed the dark-skinned human looking a touch sheepish.

"No. Jacob was just leaving," she said, "I have to make a call to one of John's friends anyway and he has to get back to work. EDI, please activate the noise cancellation around this room and seal the door once Lieutenant Taylor leaves. What can I do for you, Garrus?"

"Jacob," Garrus nodded to the man.

"Garrus," he returned the gesture.

The turian began in earnest as soon as the door closed behind the human. "I heard some things on the Fleet. We all did, I think."

"Quite. Perhaps it was nothing," she replied, "A strange admiral trying to get under everyone's skin. No one else seems to think it meant anything, at any rate."

Miranda had presented him with a vain attempt to end the conversation early. Garrus was a former law enforcement officer, and a damn good one, at that. He was as curious as a human and as tenacious as a turian. A daunting combination to face on the opposite side of the interrogation room table. Perhaps it would be best for her to just come clean- to a degree anyway- so as not to arouse his ire once he pieced everything together for himself.

"That doesn't seem to be entirely the case," Garrus said, "I think Jane is interested, but right now she's up in our room comforting Tali. Otherwise I'm sure she'd be down here herself."

"And John?" she asked, still trying to delay the inevitable while she struggled to think of a way to mitigate the damage.

"He's in the med-bay," said Garrus, taking a seat at the far side of her desk, "Getting some new skin, facial muscles, and other soft, mammalian parts. I went to him first, actually, and he's the one that suggested I talk to you."

Miranda took a seat at her desk, behind her terminal and across from the turian. _So it's all about to_ _come out, finally. It is what it is. That's why Miss Chambers is aboard, after all. Still though... Maybe I can push this off a while yet. _

"So John's alone in the medbay? All by himself?" she asked, "I think having all your soft-tissues torn from your arms and face would be hard on anyone. Seeing your metallic skeleton underneath, on display for everyone, and then having to undergo a series of painful regrowth procedures... It would be hard on anyone, even one of the first human Spectres. Maybe you should go be with your friend."

"Nah, he's the most stable person I've ever met and the Doc's got him all doped up on painkillers," said Garrus, "And Jack's there with him to keep him company, besides."

"Oh, really? What's she doing? Trying to get the first crack at inking his new skin?"

"I... I don't know," he replied, shaking his head, "Look, this isn't about him. I came here to talk about Jane and that admiral."

"Right. Well, I presume this has something to do with how we rebuilt Jane. I'll tell you what I can. What do you want to know?" Miranda steeped he fingers and waited. It didn't take long.

"Lets start with Galatea. I thought the project to bring the twins back was called Lazarus."

"Lazarus was the overall project name for bringing John back. There were several other projects whose purpose was to provide support for that one, each with its own operational name. Galatea was one of those, designed to bring Jane back."

"Why wasn't she just part of Lazarus? Why was she only there to_ support_ it?" he asked.

Miranda's voice became softer and she looked away from the man sitting before her. "Because we determined that for our purposes, bringing Jane back was secondary, given the captain's history and John's usefulness... John was the requirement. Jane was resurrected simply to earn his support, and more importantly to not have to explain why we _didn't_ bring her back."

Garrus growled deeply, his audible noises were intimidating, but his subharmonics were downright frightening. "I see. So what other projects were out there to support Lazarus?"

"Quite a few," admitted the woman, "But I don't have much, if any, information to provide you with."

"And what did Xen mean by 'penultimate'? Are there other Galateas and Lazaruses out there? How does she even know what's going on at Cerberus?"

"That is something I can't answer."

"Can't or won't?"

"Can't, Garrus," she said, giving him as sincere a look as she could, "But I can tell you that she got a lot of data on the project from Tali, and that she probably has an extensive information network. Either that, or she started up a Lazarus project of her own, there on the fleet. Being able to reanimate the dead using synthetic tech is a very useful proposition, and one probably worth continuing."

"And everything Xen said to me in _Latin_? _Humans_ don't even speak Latin anymore, outside of the Catholic Church, and somehow a quarian can recite it verbatim?"

"Good translation software?" Miranda ventured.

"It wasn't a synthesized voice," Garrus said, "It was hers. I checked it. Quarian accent and all. I sent a recording to a friend of mine, a professor of human languages. I'm told her pronunciation was damn good."

"So what does it mean?" Miranda asked, genuinely curious.

"I know what the translation is, but I don't think I even want to go there right now," he said, sitting heavily back into his seat.

"Then why did you come here? Why ask me about it?"

"I... I don't know," the turian admitted, "Habit from being a detective, I guess. Maybe I just want to know if Jane is really Jane."

Miranda turned pensive and thought for a moment. "Do you love her?" she asked.

"What?"

"Do. You. Love. Her." she repeated.

"Well, yeah. I'm ready to bond with her now. We'll have the ceremony when this is all over. She might even take my mark sooner than that."

"So you love _that_ woman?" she asked, pointing above her, in the general direction of their shared cabin.

"Again, yes!"

"Then that's all you need to know, now isn't it?"

"Well..."

"And if you trust Tali, then you'll know she isn't being controlled or coerced either. Beyond that, and the fact that you really do love _her_, do you really want to know more?"

"No... I guess I don't. And I don't think I've ever said this before, but thank you. Thank you for bringing her back."

Miranda mumbled a half-hearted 'you're welcome' at that. Ready to finally change the subject for good this time, she brought up her omni-tool. "So John and I talked earlier about helping an old friend of yours. I'm going to call her now. Care to sit in?"

"Ashley?" he asked.

"That's her."

"Definitely."

Miranda smiled and hit send on the number that the commander had given her. She knew he would have liked to have been there for the call, but he had made it clear that time was of the essence on this matter. To that end, he had asked her to do it now, when she had a free moment to spare for the endeavor.

"_Hello?_" came a gruff but feminine voice.

"Hello, is Operations Sergeant Williams present?"

"_Who's calling?_"

"This is Staff Lieutenant Lawson. I'm serving with the Shepard Twins aboard-"

"_Prove, it, Lady_."

"Cut the crap, Ash, she's on the level," interrupted Garrus.

"_Garrus? How ya doing, buddy?_"

"Good, good. Jane is good too. Thanks for helping her with all the, uh, religious stuff."

"_Got it. It's clearly you. No signs of duress. What can I do for you, Ma'am? Or should I say operative? I am actually hoping you're _not_ Alliance at this point._"

"I'm not, technically," said Miranda, "I was asked to look into helping your husband. I would be more than happy to do that for you, especially if either you or he would consent to joining us on our mission."

"_Get him the help he needs, and I'll be there for as long as he's in treatment. I'll even stay for the whole mission if you fix him. And you can ask my husband if he wants join up once he's better._"

"Fantastic," the executive replied, he emotions actually matching her words for once. "Send me all his medical records now. Give me a week to review them and we can stop by Horizon to pick him up at that time."

"_Um, is Garrus there?_"

"I'm here, Ash," the turian answered, leaning into Miranda's comm.

"_I'm sorry, G. And tell... Tell the twins I'm sorry too_."

"For what Ash?" he asked, mandibles fluttering slightly.

A few moments passed, and there was no response.

"Ash?" he asked again.

"The line is dead, Garrus," Miranda told him, "But I think I know why." There on her omni-tool were the medical records that Ashley had just sent her, pulled up for her initial evaluation. She need not have flipped past the first page to have her answer. She need not have read past the first line of that page, either. Right there at the top, it was staring her in the face like a signal flare on a moonless night.

"Patient name, Kaidan Alenko," she read.

**Please review this.**

**Fav and Follow if you like it.**

**So, for those of you that read my chapter 17 preview, you know that some of this at least, the other Cerberus projects, Galatea, etc, came out before the Citadel DLC. So did Jack straddling a shirtless Shep (femShep) to give her a tattoo, but that was many chapters ago. I will go on record now as saying that I think Shep will be back in ME4, despite what Bioware is saying at the moment.**

**Next chapter will be fore WE:TR. Please read it! I swear it's good! Also it's kind of important to the main plot...**


	18. Circle

_**I have disclaimers. You can read them in chapter one.**_

_**Please note: It will help if you read the latest chapter Warrior Ethos: Tabula Rasa before you read this. That chapter takes place immediately before the main body of this one. **_

_**Thank you to my beta, the first I have used in ages, TITANJC**_

_Chapter 18: Circle_

_May 16th, 2183, 13:24:16_

"Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit! Kirrahe! Moving to you _now_!"

Kaidan ran as fast as he could from his LPOP, where he had been patiently observing geth movements toward the tower and reporting back to the captain. Half an hour ago in his mind, slightly over a minute in reality, a jamming field had cut all communication between his two-man team and STG OPS. That should have been his first clue. His second had come a moment later when a few fingers and parts of an arm hit him in the head, along with some scraps of cloth and a piece of armor. All of that used to belong to his salarian battle buddy, who had low-crawled away only moments before to relieve herself.

It was a lucky shot, he hoped, indirect fire and nothing more, the result of one of the flashlight-heads detecting his transmissions. No matter how tight a beam, how well disguised, or how low-powered, there was always the risk of unwanted bleed-off. They might have spotted his buddy, but he doubted it. They were either bracketing the source of their transmissions or they were guessing. Either way, his position had been compromised and he needed to get the fuck out of there with all due haste.

He had done exactly that, sparing a glance behind him to confirm that yes, the unlucky staff sergeant with whom he had shared a hasty fighting position moments ago was now a distorted lump of cartilaginous meat, looking as if someone had pulled a cooked chicken apart with their bare hands and scattered it around a dirt pit. He also happened to notice that the young salarian woman's demise wasn't from a lucky shot, but from an uncounted number of geth reinforcements massing for an assault just inside the tree-line.

"Lieutenant, by your expletives, I can surmise that you believe that our situation has somehow gotten worse," Kirrahe said as Kaidan ran up to him, struggling for breath, "I would like to think that impossible at this point."

"They're massing for a charge," he said, "We'll be overrun in minutes."

"I see. You're commander brought an entire Marine detachment with him, along with some additional personnel. Can we bring them in to assist us?" the captain asked.

"I'm already on it," he replied. After a few more seconds spent conversing with his commanding officer, he had his answer. "The _Normandy_ can give us a series of orbital strikes followed by short FTL jumps... Too dangerous for close air support, they lose stealth every time they fire, but they can still nip at the geth's flanks and rear. Maybe three strikes before the enemy's main element is on top of us. Commander's sending over the heavy weapon's squad now. Should be here in seconds."

Just as he finished speaking, an Alliance shuttle streaked overhead, hardly slowing to disgorge its cargo of a dozen human Marines. Slowed by mass effect field generators, the same that produced their kinetic barriers, the troops were able to land mere meters from Kirrahe's command position at the base of the anti-aircraft tower. As they began setting up their automatic grenade launchers and heavy machine guns in nearby cover, the sky opened up above the rear-most geth. The first wave of bombardment netted scores of troopers, a handful of primes, and two colossi, bathing them in a deafening hellfire. Encouraged by their enemy's devastation, the Marines wasted little time in opening up on the exposed synthetics with the full might of a dozen members of enraged humanity.

"Alliance N7 Marines... Hardly subtle. Very effective," remarked Kirrahe.

Fighting a headache and running back and forth between fire teams, Kaidan extended a biotic barrier in front of him, providing an additional layer of cover to whichever Marines were taking the most fire at that moment. "This is good," he said, "The geth advance is stalling. If this keeps up, we could break the back of their offensive."

"Too good..." said the salarian captain, "I think we've been had. Look there. The geth aren't stalled, they're making a tactical withdrawal. The bomb is their highest priority. I have little doubt that they now realize that."

"Double shit," mumbled Kaidan, "Fourth squad! Radio for pick-up. We're done here, and they need you at the bomb."

"What about you guys?" asked the squad leader.

"Salarians aren't native to Virmire," he replied, "I'm sure they took a shuttle to get here. We'll hold the line at the tower, give you guys as much time as possible, then get the fuck out. I'll meet you in orbit."

…

"_Belay that order, Sir! Go get him, now!"_

The lone human in their group huffed, "No, Ash. We're fine-"

"_The hell you are! I can hear the explosions and flying rounds from here!_"

"_Both of you, shut up_," the human commander called over the comm, instantly clearing the net of chatter, "_If we leave to assist Kaidan and the STG, the bomb-site could be overrun, and we lose everything we've been fighting for. The mission will be lost. We always place the mission first. Period._"

"It's the right decision, Commander. These STG guys are tough. We'll make it," the biotic mammalian said, "We're almost to the shuttle now. Few more seconds. One thing... Ash, I... Love you. Always ha-"

Kirrahe was extremely glad that the chatty human hadn't had time to switch over to a private channel in the heat of the intense running firefight. If he had, the salarian wouldn't have heard his words of emotional affection cut short, the tell-tale sign of being cut down by enemy fire. Rounds were hitting all about them, some whizzing by, some hitting shields, some armor. It would be impossible to tell which out of the hundreds had managed to meet flesh. He hurried over to the fallen human, pulling a second lieutenant along with him as he sprinted to the primate's side.

"_Kaidan? What was that noise? What were you going to say? __**Kaidan?! **__ Ay __**Dios**__! No fucking fuck! I love y-_"

The captain silenced the comm, eliminating human chief's cries and allowing him to focus on the task at hand.

"Sir? The primate's dead." yelled his lieutenant, "There's no logical reason to bring its corpse with us."

"Do you know that?!" asked Kirrahe, "Do you know he's dead? Are you a doctor? Help me bring him, Lieutenant."

The pair of STG operatives hoisted the heavy mammal up, the captain grabbing him beneath his shoulders and the lieutenant taking his feet. Under renewed cover fire from the shuttle's mounted heavy weaponry, they hauled him up and into the craft as it waited, its engines already spooling for take-off.

The interior of the small shuttle was cramped, but it would be sufficient. While the medics were tending to the wounded salarians, Kirrahe began undressing the human. He couldn't blame the others; in the unfortunate business of combat triage, an apparently deceased mammal didn't rate highly against living, screaming, bleeding-out salarians. As he removed the man's armor and clothing, making the primate trauma-nude, which meant entirely nude, he began applying medi-gel to every crimson laceration he could find. Taking stock of each and every one, he noticed something quite interesting.

Although there were almost a hundred wounds by his count, none of them looked serious. The deepest among them appeared to only penetrate two-and-a-half centimeters. Checking the creature's head, he discovered the cause of his unconsciousness. A small welt at his forehead. There was no sign of cerebrospinal fluid leaking from his ears or nose, no dark circles around his eyes. That meant that the medi-gel just might help revive this man from what would have ordinarily been a devastating concussion.

Almost as if on cue, the man began to stir.

"What... What? Where?" the human asked, trying to stagger to his feet in the cramped confines of the shuttle. He brought a hand to the swollen bump. "My head... Killing me."

"I don't doubt it. You are aboard our shuttle," he said, "We were trying to escape the bomb, but I'm afraid it's too late. It's about to explode and our craft is designed for stealth insertion, not speed. We are far too slow to survive. It seems I have revived you just in time to be blown to pieces."

The human staff lieutenant looked down at his omni-tool's chronometer and swore. His hand hovered over the comm button, appearing as if trying to debate something within his head. An instant later, he nodded to himself, whatever decision he considered was made.

"We have a shot. I think I can protect us if I time this just right. But it'll cost me..." he mumbled, closing his eyes.

A second later, the brightest biotic field the captain had ever seen, in person or in holos, burst outward from the man, passing the inner hull of the shuttle and presumably extending into the air beyond.

...

_Present Day_

"What happened to your hand?"

Tali stood bolt upright at hearing that voice. She managed to stand yet straighter still once her mates comforting barking noises started to materialize into intelligible Khelish half a second after he spoke them. Although she managed not to move her head in the slightest, she could not help shifting her eyes to the aforementioned appendage.

"Yes, that one," he said.

As to be expected, her mate knew her all too well. Despite sitting slouched over a drink, an _alcoholic_ drink, at the ship's bar, back to him, somehow he had known exactly where she had glanced. She took a sip of the deceptively strong beverage. It was a liquor distilled from a sparkling white wine from a vineyard that hadn't existed for almost three hundred years. She let the fruity and potent liquid course down her throat and warm her insides, steeling her for the task at hand. She was about to lie right to the face of her lifemate _and_ superior officer in one go. That meant another hour or so pounding walls. She hoped at least one of her fingers would be capable of pulling a trigger when she was done.

"What happened to-" she hiccoughed loudly, "-your _face_?"

A grunt sounded behind her. She probably shouldn't have said that. She shook her head quickly, as much to clear her tipsy thoughts as to physically shake the guilt from her. She spun on her bar stool to face her human, swinging her broken and splinted hand behind her back as she turned.

"Hiiii, Jooohn…" she drawled, continuing to spin past him, a full three hundred-sixty degrees or so, until she once again found herself facing her drink. "How…? Hello, drink. Good to see you again."

"Darling, I... I think you've had enough," said the bartender who looked a lot like Seera but blurrier, "I think you should let me finish that for you."

"He was my… My bosh'tet. Erm, father," she replied, "So I think that… I think that I will celebrate- Er, no, what is the opposite of celebrate?"

"Mourn?" a very pleasant bark sounded from behind her.

"Yeah! Mourn. I'm mourning the bosh'tet. We are all here mourning the bosh-" She sat bolt upright with realization. That bark had just come from her mate.

Suddenly spinning around on her barstool, her human came into view as she turned. Her eyes went wide and a frown creased her lips as he began to recede from view. Her barstool had either misunderstood her intentions or the amount of resistance it was supposed to provide against a quarian woman intending to turn halfway around on her axis.

Sensing defeat, Tali acted hastily, snatching the human by the dangly piece of black fabric that hung from his neck called a _tie_. He gagged a little, but she released a contented sigh after the feat succeeded in stalling her momentum. He had not fully disappeared from her sight after all. But he was all the way in the corner of her vision, where she couldn't get a good look at his beautiful blue eyes. So she did what came naturally, tugging on the cloth neck-wear until she had centered herself on him, or he on her, she couldn't tell which.

"When did you get here?" she asked.

"I've been here the whole time," he said, "We came together, remember?"

"Riiight… This is father's remembrance dinner. I don't think I have much to remember. Of him. Or anything else right now," she said, before adding with a wagging finger, "He would have hated you."

"Maybe," John admitted, "But what about your hand?"

"What about it?"

"What happened to it?"

Tali glanced down at her hand. Right. Was this was the second time she had been asked about it?

"_Yes_, it's still that one," he said.

Tali grimaced to herself. She was certain that she hadn't been that obvious about acknowledging the broken appendage. Either John was becoming extremely observant of her body language, or she was being far less subtle than she thought. She sighed. There was no way she could tell him the truth. She'd just have to accept that and pay the price for it later.

"I got it… Caught." She tried to dry-wash her hands, but the splints got in the way. She settled for rubbing the back of the injured hand with her good one.

"Caught?" he asked her.

"Yeah. Caught." She replied.

"On?"

"The door. A door. In engineering," Tali replied, nodding, "It closed on my hand."

"What?!" John took a step back in shock, then set his drink down on the table. "You're lucky you weren't killed. These doors could cut someone in half. What kind of ship is this? EDI!"

"No, John, it's okay-"

"_Yes, Commander_?" the ship's avatar answered.

She again pulled on his tie with her good hand before releasing it to rub his chest through the thin fabric of his shirt. "Really, mmm, my love-monkey..."

"How could you let one of the doors close on Tali's hand like that?" he asked the artificial intelligence.

"_Commander, no such event took place_."

"I see," he said, "Thank you EDI. That's what I thought." He turned to the young engineer, "Last time you had your suit off-"

A very long and unladylike whistle came from Seera, interrupting the commander.

The purple-suited engineer stuck a thumb in John's direction and whispered to her fellow Migrant Fleet Marine, "I hit that like the fist of an angry god."

It was much louder than some peoples' speaking voices. She pounded her good fist into her splinted hand for illustrative effect, yelping and wincing for her troubles. The two quarian women slapped a high-five and an all but invisible shimmering of light started chuckling from a few feet away.

John rolled his eyes and shook his head. The Spectre continued, "As I was saying, when I saw your right hand the last time it looked a bit larger than the left one, more scarred, and-"

"What are you implying?" the purple suited young woman asked. She had a glint in her eye, intent on defraying the difficult question with a masturbation joke. It was the solution to all of life's unwelcome conversations.

"I think he's jealous of your personal time, Darling..." Seera said with a smile.

Tali would have kissed the other quarian if she could have. So uptight and stoic normally, she was a totally different person after a few drinks, much like Tali herself. Better still, she hadn't missed a beat.

"I... Look, we'll finish this later, Tals," John huffed, turning and walking toward the center of the gathering in the lounge.

"No!" Tali cried, getting off her stool- and stumbling awkwardly- to chase after him, "I- Look, Nee, I'm sorry!"

John turned back to her, cocking his head to the side slightly.

"I, well, I will explain about my hand later," she said, "But I have something to tell you."

She noticed at about the same time that John did that voices in the lounge were beginning to quiet down and a crowd was in its early stages of forming around them. Kal, Shala, Han, and many of her and her fathers' friends were taking an active interest in the pair.

"Sure, Tali, what's up?" he said.

"I love you," she replied, "More than anything in the history of ever. And I've been acting strangely-"

"Hold it right there," he interrupted, placing a hand on her shoulder to steady her, "I think I want to hear this in private.

"Yeeeahhh," she nodded slowly.

He began to guide the wobbly quarian to a quiet corner of the room, while the rest of its occupants resumed their conversant mingling. When they reached their destination, the young woman all but collapsed against him, mashing her visor into his chest and using his sturdy presence to handle a good portion of her weight.

She brought a hand to his face and began to gingerly trace imaginary lines over his fresh skin. "I've been acting soooo terrible to you..."

He shook his head. "No, Tals, maybe a little distant, but considering-"

Her face still pressed against one of his pectorals, she moved her good hand from his cheek to his lips. She meant to use only a single finger in the human gesture to shush or silence someone, but ended up with her whole palm covering his mouth. Mentally shrugging that the point was made either way, she kept it there.

"Ssssh shhhh shoosh shush, no. No. I have been bad. Very bad," she said, "And you will let me apologize for it."

Three fingered hand still firmly in place, he nodded.

"It's like this," she began, "You were away for a loooong time and I knew what they did to you, and I know it _is_ you, but seeing it is something different. You were like an AI under there... And seeing that... Let me give you an anal-loggie. Analogy."

"Mohh-Mhh."

"Jane said you looked like a Terminator," she said, "There've been a lot of movies and plays about them over the past couple centuries... They hit kinda close to home for me. Imagine that I disappear for two yeeeaars and turn up one day. You know it's me, you know what happened and what's underneath, but still... I get hurt and BAM! You see a Terminator underneath. Also Terminators killed your whole family. Get it?" She removed her hand from his mouth, wiping a bit of his spittle on her suit. Cleanliness be damned, she'd had his drool in a lot more interesting places than that.

"Yeah, I think I do," he replied, "Are you okay now?"

"Tooootally," she said with a smile, "As I understand it, quarian bonds are phizzzio-logical, as well as psychological. It's possible that even though I knew it was you up here," she tapped the side of her mask directly over her temple, "My eyes just didn't get the message and that was... Bad."

"So wait, what if I'm scarred for life or something?" he asked, "Like, on the face?"

"Oh! Don't worry about that," she said, pressing her mask against his face this time. She squished his nose a little, but it looked really funny when she did that, and it made her smile. "I would eventually get used to it and everything would be back to normal. Plus, next time I could just remember to open up my olfactory filters a little and avoid the whole issue. No one else's scent does to me what _yours_ does..."

"Well, let's just hope there isn't a 'next time,'" the Spectre said.

"Definitely!" shouted Tali, "You are permanently not ever, never allowed to get hurt ever again! Can... Can I have another drink, please?"

"One more," he sighed, "I think I'll go mingle now. Your aunt is giving you the evil eye."

Tali turned in a full circle before locating the woman. John had already wandered off.

"Oh. Hi Auntie!" she said, energetically waving at the stone-faced admiral.

...

The invisible shimmer from earlier materialized next to Tali, who had resumed her old seat at the bar. "Why are there so few eligible bachelors on this ship?" Kasumi asked in between sucking on a straw plunged deep into a fish-bowl margarita.

"Darling, this is a warship, not a pleasure cruise," said Seera, bringing a drink tube to her fluid port and taking a sip.

"Speak for yourself," said Tali, "You snagged the most desirable man on the Fleet, even if it did take you four years. Auntie thought he'd never bond."

"Speak for _your_self," said Kasumi, "You snagged the most desirable man in the _galaxy_ and it only took, what, a month of that shy-cutesy act of yours?"

"It's not an act, I swear it!" yelled Tali, putting her hands up defensively and leaning away from the human woman. She continued, unable to keep a small hint of arrogance from her voice, "But yeah, twenty six days and nineteen hours from Chora's Den to our first date. Might have been even less time if I'd womaned-up and made the first move."

"Human women don't usually make the first move..." said Kasumi.

"You might try it," said Seera, "If you want a roast _tilgrap_ sandwich, do you wait in the chow hall until someone brings it to you _and _expect the right kind of meat? Or do you get up and get it yourself?"

"Huh. Any other advice?" asked the thief, "On getting the right kind, I mean."

"Start by not going after anyone taken," said Tali, "Even if you do get them, that means they left another woman for you. If they left once for newer ships, they'll do the same to you in a heartbeat."

"Right, so Jacob is out, hot body and all," said the human, "I don't think I could compete with Miranda anyway. And as strangely sexy as he is, thanks to Jane, Garrus was out from the beginning. The things I would do to that turian..."

"He's a giant bird!" squealed Seera, "But listen. I think you've got the wrong idea about men. They like sex, sure, but that's not all they want. They need stability, confidence, that sort of thing. They need to know that'll you be a good provider for their kids. They want someone who's good marriage material, not just a good lay. Darling, it sounds to me like you're more interested in the physical aspects. Think with more than just your _biea_. And getting my claws into Kal was no mean feat, either. He put up a good fight. My aunt told me not to waste my time chasing a six; wanted me to settle for three, four, tops. Someone in my league, she said, but I never got discouraged. I kept at it, and so should you."

"Wow, your aunt sounds like a bitch," said Tali, "No offense."

"None, taken, Darling. And she is. You met her. Daro'Xen."

The inside of Tali's mask gained a fresh coating of extremely expensive quarian liquor. "_Xen _is your _Aunt_? By blood?"

"Indeed," said the marine, "The population was in a decline around my parents' generation. My mother's original name is Tarisa'Xen and Daro is her sister."

What were the chances? It shocked Tali, yes, but she could now see the resemblance in their personalities. Both women had that same elegance about them that accompanied the old noble clans, of which the Xen were the poster children. Both women had the same shameless and carefree confidence, but somehow with the marine it came across as not only bearable, but attractive even. And finally, both women radiated and air of danger and authority, as if crossing them would be the worst possible decision of anyone's life.

It also surprised her because she had forgotten that occasionally whole generations were permitted to have two or even three children. Though recently overturned, the one-child policy would have been totally unsustainable if enacted permanently. If two parents only had one child, then the new generation would have half as many people as the one before it. A generation after that and it would leave only a quarter of the original number of quarians. In short order the entire population would die out. Ideally, two parents would have two children, replacing themselves in the new generation and keeping the population perfectly stable. But multiple births did happen, not to mention careless rule-breakers who suffered stiff penalties, so sometimes a one-child policy would have to be enacted for a few decades.

"That's... Interesting," said Tali, pointing to her drinking tube, "Pour me another."

"But John said only one more..." said the human thief.

Tali grunted and gave the woman a rude gesture, her best quarian equivalent of a human one she'd learned from Adams.

"With pleasure," said her fellow Fleet Marine.

"You know, um... Kasumi..." said Tali, "You should probably _not_ listen to Seera. On the finding a man thing. Human men might not be like quarian men."

"So they do care mostly about sex?" she asked, "That _is_ what I had been told since I was little."

"Ewww... Only the sluts, I hope," said the engineer, "You can do better than someone who lowers their mask at a wink and a smile. I think she might be wrong about some of the other things they like. I don't know _kazuat_ about men of _any_ race, but I'm not so sure that human men care about stability and confidence and that sort of thing. I'm the least stable or confident person you could ever meet and somehow I landed John."

"Darling, maybe she _is _right. Maybe you don't have to be confident," said Seera, "But there's another option. It wouldn't hurt to bring down _their _confidence. I have some friends who have landed pretty good men by knocking them down a peg or two. Try insulting them, but in not-terribly-offensive sort of way. Or point out some of their faults."

"What kind of sense does that make?" the thief asked.

Seera shrugged. "I read it somewhere. Worked on Kal..."

"I... That's evil!" said Tali, shaking her head and feeling generally disgusted with the normally aloof marine, "He's a brother to me... I'm shocked he's actually bonding with you. That sort of thing only works for over-the-suit flings anyway. Once they wake up the next morning, and _whatever you drugged them with has worn off_, they'll never be back."

"I think I could give it a shot," said the human, "I'm a bit emotionally unavailable at the moment, but I _could_ use a good fling, even if it is only over a suit. I did hear you guys are pretty damn hot under those masks, though..."

Kasumi clinked her large glass of yellow liquid against Seera's drink tube and started off toward a group of young male quarian officers, smiling the whole way.

"She doesn't stand a chance," said Tali.

"No, I'm afraid she doesn't" agreed Seera.

"You're terrible," said Tali.

Seera shrugged again and smiled. "My twenties- and teens- are over, Darling. I'm bonded now. I think I finally deserve to enjoy the real thing."

...

"Ma'am, I... I just want to express my condolences for your loss."

"Hmm?" Tali looked up from her drink to find a young quarian girl pulling up the stool next to her. "Oh, Lia, hey. Don't mention it. Like, really, don't. It's not every day that I get to get drunk with my friends on my ship- in name now, by the way- and my friends from the Fleet... So don't ruin it by... By making me cry again... Okay?"

The girl could just about hear the other woman choking up through her mask. She felt terrible for bringing it up, despite how absurd that seemed in her own head. Not bringing up the dead or consoling those he left behind at his remembrance dinner? Everyone was entitled to grieve in their own way, she supposed.

"Sorry, I, uh, sorry Ma'am," stammered the younger woman, "So, I don't think I've ever seen you drink. Enjoying it?"

"Yesh!" she replied, "A lot. It takes... Takes my mind off things. And when people drink they talk about things they never would have without it. For example, Me, Seera, and a Japanese elf were just discussing men and the lack of eligible bachelors on this ship for Kasumi."

"For Kasumi?" Lia chuckled, "What about me? I'm in my prime too! I tried getting a little closer to Joker, but I got the feeling he wasn't interested. It was the damnedest thing, too! I have the strangest feeling that the AI has been upset at me ever since. Just the other day I was in the co-pilot seat, playing Galaxy of Fantasy with Mister J when the chair started spinning. Cost us the whole raid!"

Tali laughed at that, "So what did you do?"

"I swore and screamed at that floating blue orb," she said, "And Mister J didn't even believe me! He defended _her_ and kicked _me_ out of the cockpit." She turned to the nearest wall, pointing an accusatory finger at one of the ever-present holopads. "You know what you did, you _Bosh'tet_! Mister J loves me deep down inside and you can't stop true love, you hear me, you _det kazuat_ machine?!"

"_Sergeant Vael, as I said before, there was a random power fluctuation in the co-pilot seat's gyroscopic stabilizers. Incidences such as that will occur from time to time. I suggest that you refrain from visiting the cockpit area to minimize the inconvenience_."

"Stuff it, Sal!" screamed the light-blue suited woman. She turned back to Tali, who was snickering softly, "Not you too, Ma'am... _Keelah_, I'm gonna be the one girl who never got some glove on her pilgrimage. Even Zaeed is starting to look pretty good."

Lia let her eyes wander to the scarred, middle aged human and gave a mental shrug. He was different, yes, very different, but in a not-so-bad sort of way. He wasn't the coquettish waif or all-around ass that many quarian men were. He was confident, well muscled, and even a little scary. Definitely not manly, he wasn't what she typically looked for in a mate, nor what she was used to seeing, but for some reason she _really_ liked it.

"Eww. Listen, Lia, I would have sworn that I would never be with a man before I died, and... And I was okay with that. You should be too. Not that you're gonna be forever alone or anything, but-" Tali must have noticed just how downtrodden she was making the young woman feel and quickly got to the point. "Anyway, Zaeed? Really? He... He looks like he's traveled around the galaxy a few times, if you know what I mean. Ah, uh, expeeerienced... Have you caught Monkey-Fever that bad?"

She turned back from the human to regard her superior. "What can I say? Wanna share yours?"

The growl that met her audio pick-ups let her know exactly how far she had crossed the line with that joke. Lia would prefer not to be beaten to a pulp. Or disemboweled by a clawed high-kick to the stomach. Or blasted with a shotgun. Or-

"Sorry!" she quickly gulped, halting her macabre thoughts, "But about Zaeed. A hook-up would be just that. Nothing serious. I'm not gonna show the guy my face or anything. And maybe I could get him to settle down. You never know."

Tali audibly scoffed at that, turning away from the younger woman to gulp down the last of her drink. "No, that won't work, because... Humans... Humans can't..." she trailed off, her voice distorting into weeping.

That was a strange turn of events. Lia started rubbing the purple-suited woman's back, unsure of what else to do. "Humans can't what?" she asked.

"They _can't bond_..."

That was it. Tali choked out a loud sob and started balling, something Lia had never expected her to do in public. The booze must have been having an effect. There was an easy fix for this. The younger woman could simply set her superior straight.

"Ma'am, that's not true," she said.

"What?" Tali asked, looking up at her, "Don't be stupid. They aren't quarian. That don't have quarian braaaainsss... They don't have the... The chemical changes that we dooo..."

"Um, hello? Ma'am? Which one of us has the doctorates in bio, xeno-bio, and org-chem? If I tell you that humans can bond, they can bond."

"Sure, maybe... But it's not real... Not a real quarian bond," moaned the engineer.

"Uh, yeah. It totally is," she tried not to make it sound like she thought her boss was being pouty and wallowing in her own self-pity, but that's exactly what she thought. Whether or not she succeeded, the woman seemed not to notice, so that was good.

Tali grew silent and looked up at her. The woman's body language told her that she expected to hear more.

"I just heard that the Fleet's allowing two children per couple now, and there's talk of upping it to three," she said, "You know why that is? Rumor has it that it's because so many women are taking human mates. Over three hundred confirmed bonds so far, and more expected every day. It's getting to the point where the asari are starting to fume with jealousy. I even read in the Sur'Kesh Journal of Medicine that a Salarian pharmaceutical company is thinking of retooling one of its labs to start a quarian cloning and gene modding operation. They see a demand for adoption. They've already started getting calls from quarian-human couples."

"So?" sobbed Tali, "That just means there's lots of stupid women out there. Stupid like me."

Lia rolled her eyes. Tali was such a damn good engineer, and an even better marine if that were even possible, but she was utterly clueless about everything else in the galaxy.

"And how many unfaithful humans do you think there've been?" Lia asked her, "How many broken bonds between these couples? None. Not one. The Fleet Times-Dispatch did a story on it, but I didn't believe it. So I scoured the extra-net, ship's logs, everything I could get my hands on. I couldn't find even a second-hand story of a single break up after a bond. That's a hundred percent! Even among full-quarian couples the success rate of bonds is only around ninety nine point seven percent cause there's always the odd pair looking to fake it for the sake of stability or for some other reason. I suppose we'd need a larger sample size of quarian-human bonds, though."

"But humans?" Tali asked. "They don't show any change like a quarian would. They don't act any different. John doesn't seem very possessive or anything..."

"Does a male ever?" she asked.

"Like I would know..."

"But that's not the point," said Lia, "They may not even know they're bonded. They probably don't have the faintest idea. The point is, the data doesn't lie. Once you get one, they aren't going anywhere. No one in the scientific community has any idea how or why it works, but it does."

"Now I feel bad cause I think I've trapped John..." Tali poured herself another drink and took a swig. "That means it's my fault he's not behaving like a human anymore, doing human things, swinging around in the jungle and..." she motioned with her hand, urging herself to continue, "...And whatever it is they do."

"Ma'am, don't think of it like that. Think of it like it's your duty as a quarian woman to give the gift of a true bond to one of these poor savages. He could never have known real love without you." She smiled at her own sappiness.

"Jeebus, that's the lamest thing I've ever heard," she replied, sighing, "But I'm convinced, I guess. It's not like I would ever dream of doing anything but making him my lifemate anyway."

...

"So, it seems you've succeeded in robbing the bubble."

John heard the familiar voice approaching from behind and turned away from Zaeed, who had just found himself distracted by the ship's other resident quarian engineer. It was a good thing too, he supposed. For a few seconds there, it seemed like she had given up on getting Joker out of the cockpit and was coming over to flirt with John instead. That was the last thing he needed right now. Not one, but two women who weren't Tali trying to bed him.

"Auntie Raan," he said by way of reintroduction.

It looked like she was frowning.

"Shala?"

Still frowning.

"Admiral?"

No help there.

"_Ma'am_?"

"Shala will do, for now," the admiral sighed, "You may address me as Aunt Raan once your bond has been logged."

"You know, seven years isn't that much of an age difference. Maybe five years now, depending on how you look at it. So, uh, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"Technically she was a minor when she met you," Shala replied, "But that's neither here nor there. First, I wish to thank you for helping Lia'Vael with her pilgrimage gift. It was quite impressive, probably the most impressive gift we've seen to date, almost on the scale of a live-ship. We will need a new name for it, though. The _Purgatory _is hardly fitting. I dare say it seems you have a habit of helping young quarian girls in times of need."

"Just trying to make the galaxy a better place," he said, "I didn't help, actually. That might have been Jane, though I heard Lia took the ship all on her own."

"You don't need to lie for the girl," said the admiral, fingering the rim of her drink, "We're hardly going to turn down a gift of that magnitude simply because the rules may have been bent a little. Just don't let this pilgrimage end the same way as your last one."

"I don't know what you..." Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tali sitting at the bar, staring in his direction, the look in her glowing eyes somewhere between complete adoration and a starving varren getting its first look at a fresh porterhouse steak. It made him smile. "Yeah, that's not gonna happen this time."

"I know," she replied, " And I want _you_ to know that Rael would have eventually welcomed you into the family. Of that I have little doubt."

"Really?" John asked, "That's not the impression that I got from Tali."

"I know that as well," she replied, "And that is why I am speaking to you now about it. It is more than a woman wishing to speak kind words of the departed, of the father of her child. Well... Niece."

"I'm glad to hear it," he said, "I was worried that before... you know... that he would never have accepted me. That I might have driven a wedge deeper into Tali's already strained relationship with him. It would have meant a lot to me if they had reconciled and being the cause of even more drama wasn't something I wanted."

"Would you have left Tali?" Shala asked, "For her sake? For the sake of her relationship with her father, if that were the only way?"

"Honestly?" he asked. Maybe it was because he was drunk and feeling cocky, but at the moment he saw no downside in laying it all on the table for this woman. If she did want to call a halt to his wedding, or bonding as they called it, then he expected he'd be attending another admiral's remembrance dinner the moment Tali found out. On the plus side, that would be more cake for him at the wedding.

Shala simply nodded. She looked genuinely curious about his response.

"No way in hell," he said, shaking his head from one shoulder to the other. "I don't care if that's selfish. It is what it is. I love her too much to let her go. And the idea of leaving her again, abandoning her to the Fleet- no offense- a second time... That sickens me."

"That is not selfish in the slightest," she said, surprising the man. "If you did leave her, you could easily find another woman, probably a dozen of them, probably a few on this very ship, any or all of whom could bear your children. Tali is bonded to you for life. There will never be another for her. When you say you wouldn't leave her for anything, even at the expense of her relationship with her father, it comes across to me that you do that more for her than yourself. More importantly, you do it for the sake of your bond. You place that above all else. I believe your bond is real. But... You may be tested again, by others. I warn you, it will not be as easy as a simple conversation."

Apparently the woman could either read human facial expressions, body language, or both. John had tried for years to control the image he presented to others, especially his emotions. It was a necessary skill for any officer who wished to make it to staff lieutenant. He knew he was good at it, but clearly not that good. Admiral Raan may have been reading his mind for how well she could tell he was worried.

"Nothing terrible, I assure you," she said, "I doubt it would be anything like a fight to the death. You're the wrong gender for that, anyway." The admiral finished with a smile, her eyes dimming marginally at the corners.

John was a little taken aback by that. "I can fight, you know."

"And so can Tali. I have every confidence that she will emerge victorious, regardless of how many warriors the clan matriarch sends to fight her."

That Tali was a hell of a fighter was certainly true, but that revelation did _not_ sit well with him. "What?! You're kidding? How the hell would that prove her bond?"

"Ancestors, you're gullible," she said, "It would prove nothing, except that the Matriarch would be foolish in the extreme, which is why it isn't going to happen."

John cracked a small smile. It was hard to tell when she was joking. Her delivery was so dead-pan and he was in the habit of taking all senior officers at their word.

"So when is the date?" Shala asked, "And have you decided on a ship yet? What about a guest list? And do you have a _pal'tec vis surden_? Please tell me you have a _pal'tec vis surden_..."

John's smile broadened. There was something extremely _normal_ about being nagged by one's _de-facto_ mother-in-law. Tali may have been an alien, and extremely different from him in many respects, although not as different as a hanar or krogan might be, but there must have been something truly universal about mothers of the bride.

"The date for the bonding ceremony hasn't been set yet," he replied, "But it will be as soon after this mission as possible. As for the ship, well, that depends on the number of guests. If there aren't too many, we'll have it here. If there are a lot, Tali was thinking of asking if she could have it aboard the _Rayya_.

"Or the _Tonbay_?" Shala suggested.

"That'll work too," he replied, "I do have a _pal'tec vis surden_, and that reminds me, I just got it back. I had been dealing with a courier service, but since I was in the neighborhood, I picked it up from the craftsman directly. Would you like to see it?"

"Of course! If you please."

He pulled out the small, flat, metallic object and presented it to the woman.

"It's gorgeous," she said, "This was made by a master craftsman, out of some extremely precious metals. The engraving is so fine... That alone must have cost a fortune. Tali will love it. Is that a diamond?" She looked up at him, running her a thumb over the small, sparkling gemstone.

John nodded and smiled.

"Yes," Shala nodded along with John, "This could have been presented to her Royal Highness Princess Tasaan'Gerrel herself, some three hundred years ago. Anything less would not be befitting of my Tali. Still though... Today it would be considered rather gouache and in poor taste."

"Aww, hell. Too fancy?" he asked.

"For a people who wander about the stars, scavenging for their next meal? Yes," she replied.

John felt terrible. He hung his head in shame and held out his hand, palm up, ready to pocket the medallion and order another one immediately. "I'll come up with something better."

"No need," replied the woman, "As I said, Tali will adore it and nothing else would do for my baby girl. I demand that you present it to her."

"You just said-"

"I know, I know," she interrupted him, "But it will be under her suit, so no one else will know of it. Tali will decry the wasted resources, of course. You'll tell her that there was no waste because it was spent on her, and this is infinitesimal compared to her value to you. She will reluctantly accept it while secretly going mad with joy over such a gift. Everybody wins except your bank account. So the diamond... That was uncommon for these even when we had the money to spend on them. A human custom?"

"Yes indeed," he replied, "It was from an engagement ring I gave to Tali- A human custom similar to yours- but I thought this would be more fitting for a quarian bride and more comfortable for her to wear."

"But you already gave this ring to her?" Shala asked, crossing her arms. "I find it hard to believe she would have parted with it so easily. And where was she keeping it, that you were able to reclaim it from her?"

The admiral looked suspicious. Mighty suspicious. John eyed the door, gauging how long it would take him to run for the exit and whether or not an adult quarian female might be able to catch him. His odds weren't good.

"I, uh, well, the... opportunity..." he swallowed hard, his eyes darting around, taking in everything around him except the quarian woman's narrowed gaze, "Presented itself. So I reacquired it without her knowledge and she hasn't noticed it's missing yet. She, uh, kept it on her. In a suit pocket."

"I'm not going to ask any further," she said, "Because I don't want to hear any more. I suggest that the next time the opportunity _presents_ itself, you put that back where you found the ring. If she does happen to notice that nothing is there, she'll be absolutely livid with you."

"I'll do just that, and as soon as possible." He smiled.

She frowned. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I see Han over there and wish to reminisce about Rael. Remember, there will be a test of your bond," she said, "Just do what you feel in your heart, and you will be fine." The admiral turned to go, off to mingle with her fellow quarians.

"I will, I promise," he called after her.

Shala turned back to him, "One more thing, John. When the time comes to test you two, please make sure Tali doesn't actually kill anyone. About that I am not joking in the slightest."

...

"Hey, Shep, looking good."

Half-empty bottle of scotch in hand, Jack took a seat on the couch next to John, an appropriately respectable distance separating them, he noticed. As if able to read his mind, she shot him a sly look out of the corner of her eye and scooted a couple of centimeters closer, all while managing to keep a straight face.

"Thanks. Feeling good," he replied, "It's still raw, but Karin gave me some kind of anesthetic gel to numb it."

"So where's the rest of the crew?" she asked, "I don't see the cheerleader, Jake, Grunt... Or Garrus and the captain. Maybe Grunt and Team Cerberus didn't get invited, but Garrus? And no shit, for the first week aboard I honestly thought Tali was you and Jane's adopted younger sister, the way she gets all mamma-bear over her."

"Actually, they were all invited. Miranda, Jacob, and Grunt are off on a mission," said John, "Jake somehow got intel on his father... A distress beacon of some kind. Needed to get there quick to track it down. Miri insisted on going along. Wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. Grunt happened to be in the armory playing shoot-'em-up with an unloaded Cain when Jake asked Jane and I about it. He yelled something about 'more battle' and ran off to pack for the mission. I swear, he's getting grumpier by the second."

"Really? I couldn't tell," Jack deadpanned, "So where are the couple that Shanxi forgot?"

"Up in their room," said the commander, "I think. Not sure. Jane got some news that she took kind of hard. Tali spent some time with her, then I did. Garrus hasn't left her side. She was here to welcome the quarians, and I expect she'll be around to see them off."

"Seems like that's all that's been happening aboard this ship," said Jack, "Just a bunch of shit news for everyone. Jake'll probably find out his dad's dead or something. Hope he takes it as well as Tali. Any idea what happened with the Cap?"

"Yeah, but it's not for me to say."

"No worries," she replied, "The cheerleader's gone, so while Jane's up there, who's flying the ship?"

"Joker."

"You're such a smartass dick," she gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder and toothy smile. Taking a few gulps of scotch, she continued, "I mean who's playing captain?"

"I am," he replied, "And that reminds me, from here, we're going directly to Pragia. Jacob and his team will meet us in orbit, if all goes well for them."

"No shit? Fuck, yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" she said, still smiling. A moment later, the smile abruptly disappeared. She looked away, off into a non-existent distance, taking another drink. "Thanks for doing this for me. I... I'm not used to people caring or giving a damn about me. Unless they _want_ something from me, you know?"

"No, but I can guess."

"That's just fucking like you," she said, "You _wouldn't_ know what I was talking about. You're so... You're something else. I'd give you _everything_ I have to give, just to get you to say hello to me. You don't want any of it. Instead, you're blowing up a fifty-acre prison complex just to make this lunatic feel a little bit better about herself. After all the shit I've seen in the galaxy, after all the countless assholes out there looking to- and who _did_- take advantage of me..." she sighed, "I used to dream day and night of meeting someone like you. Just one person in my life who wasn't a total ass. I'm... I'm glad to just know that someone like you is really out there. That you're real is all."

"Jack, I don't know what to say," he slowly shook his head, genuinely touched with this young woman's heart-to-heart sentiment.

At that moment, he actually felt bad for being with Tali, even if it was only for the smallest, most miniscule fraction of an instant. The Spectre couldn't help it. He really wanted to help everyone he met, could empathize with every person he came across. The problem was that Jack, after all the pain and suffering she had been through at the hands of others, wanted his help in the form of a stable, loving relationship and he just couldn't give her that. He looked around the room. Seeing no one watching and Tali slumped over the bar, he reached out and squeezed her hand. Instead of feeling dirty or adulterous, he only felt contentment when she gave his hand a firm squeeze in return before he released it.

She proffered him with an authentic and strangely bashful smile. "So what's her deal, anyway?"

"Who? Tali?" he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, you know it wasn't her in the med-bay getting her hand crushed in your grip while you were getting new nerves sewn on or whatever," the convict replied.

John nodded, understanding exactly what she meant. He hadn't even thought about it at the time, or even later, if he were being honest with himself. Only when Tali had spoken to him about her reaction to his appearanc did the significance of that slight actually begin to register with him. It still didn't bother him that much, especially after the explanation. Truth be told, he was a lot more hurt that she had chosen to get drunk for the first time ever up in Jane's cabin without him. He had little doubt that she meant nothing by it, certainly having no intention to upset him, but he couldn't help feeling perturbed.

"Eh... She didn't like what she saw," he replied, "And she's quarian. Has a bad history with machines. Wouldn't have made as much of a difference if she had remembered to open up her sensors to smell me. But tell me something, Jack."

"Yeah?" She scooted a little closer to him.

"Lets say I get a tattoo at some shop on the Citadel," he said, "Totally out of the blue, don't mention it to you beforehand or anything, and I show it to you. How does that make you feel?"

"After all the times I offered to give you as much ink as you wanted, wherever you wanted it?" she asked, "I think I'd bust your lip open. I might forgive you if you let me give you sleeves or something. But not being your first? You're not trying to tell me something, are you?" She glanced over his body, as if looking for places that might be harboring fresh bandages.

"Nooo, Jack. I would never do that to you. I promise you'll be the first person I ever get a tattoo from and you can do whatever design you want. As soon as this mission is over, guaranteed."

"Thanks Shep... That's..." she leaned in a little closer to him, licking her lips, "That means a lot to me. You know I'd love to do it. I've even got the perfect idea, just for you. So, why'dya ask, anyway? Someone do something behind your back?"

John nodded, but said nothing. It still seemed like a stupid thing for him to be upset about, and voicing his concern wouldn't get him anywhere, except maybe labeled as someone who complains about the non-essentials in life.

"This about Princess?" she asked, "What _else_ did she do to you? If she was dumb enough to hurt you... I'll have to write her a thank-you card for screwing up so badly. So, are you single yet, or what?"

"In another time, another life," he replied.

"Yeah, I know. Fuck you, too," she said, sporting a sad smile, "You know, one day I swear I'll build a time machine"

**Please review this.**

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**Finally, today/tonight might be my last online communication for a while. I don't have much time available to me, but I always respond to ALL my reviews. So if you have a question, comment, marriage proposal, please leave it in the form of a review and I will definitely get back to you.**


	19. The Unforgiven II

**Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Big One. Lot's of things that have been building up are finally seeing the light of day in this chapter. This is the Boom, and the next chapters of WE2 and WE:TR are when the shrapnel hits. I am of course very unsatisfied with how this chapter has turned out, but I've been wracking my brain to try and improve it, to bring something more to the table, but over the past two weeks since completion, that has gotten me absolutely nowhere. So I'm just going to accept it for what it is. I hope you like it. **

_Chapter 19: The Unforgiven II_

_May 17th, 2183, 02:12:41_

"What the heck are you doing in here, Wrex?"

"The men's room?" asked the krogan, "I'm going to take a piss."

Putting words to action, he moved past where Ashley crouched on the floor with her back against the wall. Unclasping the sections of armor around his nether regions, he stepped up to a urinal. That was an odd thing in and of itself, as Ash hadn't noticed any of those when she had run headlong into what she thought was the ladies' room. It was unsurprising that she had missed those, given that it had been hard to see with her eyes swollen shut with tears. That had been roughly half an hour ago, immediately following the Virmire debriefing. She hadn't moved since.

Deciding it would be a good idea to relocate before another male crewmember showed up, she shut down the music program she had been listening to and pulled herself up to the near-by sink. She would have to clean herself up a bit before presenting herself to the night-shift. Maybe Wrex could hold it for a minute while she got herself together.

"Wrex, can you please not-"

The sound of urine hitting water interrupted her. There was a lot of it.

"I'm a little busy, Pup," he said, "If you want to help me go quicker, maybe you could hum or something."

She didn't know whether to be upset because he was being insensitive or flattered that he was trying to comfort her through humor. She thought she heard some levity in his voice and chose the latter option.

"I guess I can't really say anything," she said, "It's not like there are any other bathrooms aboard. And I happened to walk into the wrong one."

"Yeah, I don't suppose you saw the sign on the door when you walked inside, considering the state you were in after the meeting."

"I tried not to make it obvious," she replied.

"You didn't," he said, "That was a good guess. I've been around... You might have been able to fool the others, but I could tell what Kaidan meant to you. You'd be a heartless she-varren not to be pretty broken up right about now."

"Yeah..." she sighed, feeling free enough in the presence of the astute krogan to wipe away at her cheeks with some water and a cloth, "He... He meant a lot to me. Told me he loved me, too, right before he was cut off. Got hit by some of the gunfire, I guess. I tried to say it back to him, but I didn't get an answer. Then the call just ended."

"Hmmm..." the old krogan scratched at his chin a moment, the gears of thought turning behind fearsome eyes, "How do you know he's dead? He seemed tougher than average."

"Tougher than a _nuke_?" she asked, disgust leaking into her voice. She didn't like playing games with anyone, least of all about such a sensitive topic. And to think that Wrex genuinely believed that Kaidan might have survived? There was no way he was that dumb. Then again... "Look, Wrex, I've tried calling back a dozen times already. Maybe two dozen, I don't know, I lost count. The only reason I stopped is because my fingers were getting tired and if I don't hang up by the sixth ring, his voice-mail message makes me cry when I hear it."

"So it just rings and rings and eventually goes to his message?" the battlemaster asked.

"Yes," she replied, turning from the sink to leave. She could continue to flounder in the mire of oppressing thoughts in the peace and quiet of her own bunk.

"Huh," Wrex grumbled as she stalked past him, "You'd think it would go straight to voicemail. That's what happens when _my_ comm is off. That must be a pretty damn tough omni-tool to survive a nuke from ground-zero, wouldn't you say?"

Ash stopped dead in her tracks. Turning to face Wrex, she did something she absolutely never thought she was capable of doing and would swear for another thirty years had never happened at all. She kissed a krogan full on the lips.

...

_Present Day_

"Mmmm... My head hurts," said Tali. She started climbing off her human, then took in her surroundings. "John, why are we on the floor?"

"Whoa, glad to see you in the land of the living again. You okay?" he asked her. She seemed normal, but one could never be too sure.

"Yeah, I'm- My voice!" Tali squeaked. She brought a hand to her missing vocalizer, finding her lips instead. "My mask! What happened?"

"I think you had too much to drink," he said, climbing to his feet, "I managed to wake you once. You stood up, took off your mask, told me you were peeing in your suit, then curled up on the floor... So I joined you. You were otherwise okay, so I called Kal for advise on drunk quarians. He said that on the off chance it was alcohol poisoning, it would be a bad idea to wake you, I should remove you mask just in case, and that your suit would help flush the alcohol out of your system soon enough."

"I... I don't think I was bad enough to go _yilaum do vis raen tyst_, I hope. That would have been terrible. It shouldn't have been that close." she said, picking her mask from the floor. She ran to the bathroom to clean it, speaking as she pumped disinfectant onto it. "So... I didn't hurt anyone, did I?"

"No, but you sure scared the crap out of me," he replied, moving toward their cabin door. "So, it's around eleven-hundred and we're both ridiculously late. I'll see you in an hour for lunch!"

"It's _what_ time?!" Tali screamed, "I- I'm so sorry! I've never been late before! I'll make up the lost time, I'll do anything, extra duty, scrubbing the heads, anything! Please don't put this in my record!"

"Relax," said John, palming the door, "Lia covered for you. We haven't had a hard burn since we left the Fleet. There was nothing for you to do, anyway."

"Are you saying I'm _not needed_?! Oh, Ancestors-!"

Whatever Tali had to say after that was cut off when John walked out the door and it automatically closed behind him. After he father's death, her lover's maiming, and a night of drinking like that, she could use the break anyway. He made a mental note to more carefully monitor her alcohol intake if she ever drank again. More importantly, he would remember to take Kal's advice. Never wake a quarian who had been rendered unconscious, even if that meant using sedatives.

...

"Hey. Mind if I sit here?"

Sidonis looked over his shoulder at the dark-haired human woman pulling up a bar-stool next to him. Were that the only free seat in the bar he might not have been suspicious. He looked around the room again. Sure enough, aside from her, the bartender, and an elcor drinking from a trough, there were no other people in the place.

"Nope, I don't mind a bit," he said, beginning to stand, "I was just leaving though."

"Hey, wait," she called after him, "I don't stink that bad, do I? Or do you hate humans or something?"

He turned back to her. The woman had green eyes, tinged with a hint of red, pale white skin, jet-black chin-length hair, and wore a casual top, form-fitting but not uncomfortable looking jeans, and a leather jacket. She wasn't dressed like she was trying to get laid, which was good, because like most females in the galaxy, humans were far too smooth for Sidonis' tastes. Maybe she had been held over from a flight somewhere and just wanted someone to talk to? Or she could be trying to kill him. If that were the case, he'd been found out and would soon be dead anyway. He supposed it was about time for that; he was so damn tired of running and hiding. The least he could do for himself was to finish his drink.

The human looked hurt at the idea of his departure, almost as if she had been genuinely hoping for the company. He gave her a half smile, one mandible flaring out slightly, and let his subharmonics sound with acceptance. He returned to his drink and leaned over to the woman.

"Sorry, I'm normally a loner, but in you case I'll make an exception," he said.

"Galatea," she replied, holding out hand to him, "But you can call me Gally."

"Nice to meet you," he said, taking her hand in his and gently shaking it.

"So you're a loner?" she asked, "Me too."

"Yeah... I'm not much good with people anymore." He cursed himself for that mental slip-up. 'Anymore' implied that he had been a sociable type once, instead of the morose bastard he had become. That meant that she just might ask-

"Anymore? What happened?" she asked on cue.

He looked away, pausing to collect his thoughts while she ordered a Coca-Cola from the bartender. "Just... Some bad memories from some bad things I did..." he said, "Sometime you just can't go back to the person you once were."

"Wow, heavy stuff," she replied, "But cheer up. It looks like you still have your health. You're not dead yet."

"Might as well be..."

"Hey, you sound really depressed, but I know the feeling... I've... I've been there," she said, "It takes a lot, but it gets better. Sometimes."

...

"Yeah, sometimes," he said, "You've really been there, haven't you? I can see it in your eyes."

"Something like that," Jane replied, "I guess that's why I'm here, by myself, in a bar, at nine-thirty in the morning."

That was only partially true. She came into the bar alone, yes, but Garrus was waiting a good three hundred meters away in an empty loft in the building across the street, some ten floors up. It was her job to lure Sidonis out into an open area adjacent to the buildings so he could get a clear shot at the man in an area free of bystanders.

She had been trying to tell herself since Garrus came back that the man sitting before her was somehow different from herself. _She_ had killed civilians with whom she had no obligations. _He _had killed his friends, indirectly, and those were people who had trusted him. His crime was betrayal of trust, and his place was the lowest circle of hell according to Dante, while hers would be the in the seventh circle. The view was marginally better from there, by her line of reasoning.

But something wasn't right. Something in the back of her mind she had never had before- a conscience? kept nagging at her. She had personally killed for vengeance and, although she had to swallow down a lump of real vomit rising in her throat to admit it, for fun as well. Having actually committed no crimes himself, Sidonis had _gotten_ people killed, what he did was out of self preservation while almost certainly under the duress of intense torture. She had betrayed not only the trust of one sentient for another, but the trust the Alliance had placed in her as an officer, and even the trust the Almighty had given her through the gift of life.

The one thing Jane hated more than herself was a hypocrite, so this had to go one of two ways. She could accept that the man next to her needed to die, something that for some reason had not been a problem before but was definitely one now, and that she needed to die as well. A bullet to the head would solve both of those problems quite nicely. Or she could take the high road and forgive not only this man, but herself too. The latter would require the grace of God, but by her understanding, he had plenty of that to go around. It scared her a little when she thought of how tough a decision this was becoming for her, and how little either eventuality seemed to bother her. At the moment, though, the crucifix around her neck seemed awfully heavy and getting heavier.

"_Jane, you know I can hear you. Please don't start sympathizing with this guy_," Garrus said privately into her ear, "_You're nothing like this scum._"

She ignored it.

"Maybe you're in a bar for breakfast," Sidonis said, "But you're not the one drinking. So, you have some demons in your past, too?"

"Yeah, demons. Or demon. Yeah, it's just one," she replied, taking a sip of her Coke.

"Sounds like you know this demon. Does she have a name?"

"Yeah, Jane Shepard."

"_Jane... Stop it. You. Are. Not. Bad. You're also going to give us away if you keep this up, and we'll never get him out here._"

"_The_ Jane Shepard? You had a run-in with the Butcher of Torfan? I'm surprised you survived," he said, a worried look on his face, mirroring the tremble in his subharmonics. He pulled marginally away from her.

"I'm not sure I did," replied the Spectre, "She's me."

The turian jumped to his feet, a hand thrusting forward as a defense. "You're _his_ woman! He's here, isn't he?" Sidonis asked, straining his neck to look all about the room at once,  
"Garrus is here?!"

"_Damn it, Jane, _now_ what are we gonna do?_" asked Garrus over the comm.

Jane slowly turned to Sidonis with a cocked eyebrow. "Sit down, Sidonis," she said, noticing how he flinched at hearing his own name spoken aloud, "Garrus is outside and he's ready to blow your head off if you leave."

He resumed his seat next to her and took another drink from his glass. "So this is it then?" he asked, "Well... Let's do this. I'm ready."

"I'm not gonna kill you, Sid," she said.

"_No, I am,_" said the ex-C-Sec officer.

"_No one_ is going to kill you," she said to one turian as much as the other, "Not today, anyway."

"_Jane_..." Garrus sighed into her ear.

"Is he there?" asked Sidonis, "Are you talking to him now?"

She nodded.

"Tell him I am truly sorry. There's nothing I can ever say or do to make up for what I did," he said, "But maybe this will help." The turian got to his feet and started for the door.

Jane jumped to his feet and followed after him, grabbing him by the collar to slow him down. He yanked free of her tight grip, tearing his shirt, and kept walking.

"What are doing?!" she asked, "I told you, you're gonna get your head blown off! We're giving you a way out!"

"_No we're not_."

"Yes, we are!" screamed the Spectre.

"Commander, this is what's going to happen," he said, shaking his head, almost to the front door now, "I'm going to walk out there and accept what I've been avoiding since those mercs got a hold of me on Omega."

Just as he reached the entrance, Jane jumped in front of the man.

"_Jane, you're blocking my shot. Get out of the way. You just cost me an extra two seconds to realign my weapon after you move."_

She ripped the cross from around her neck and held it in front of the man's face, screaming, "The hell you're getting yourself killed! People can forgive! God can forgive! You can still make the galaxy a better place. There's no need to sacrifice your life to the Spirit of Vengeance. Believe me..."

_"Babe, maybe you have God. Maybe you can forgive Sid, but it's not your place, it's mine. And I just can't let him go_."

Jane looked up in the direction of Garrus' sniper position. "If you're gonna kill him, then you can damn well kill me too," Jane snarled, "I've done a hell of a lot worse than this man."

When Sidonis tried to side-step her, she followed suit, but she had time to react. Garrus was a well-trained sniper and wouldn't be pointing his weapon anywhere near a friendly, particularly someone he loved. He had probably even unloaded it, just to be safe. Whether he felt the same way after she had finished saying what needed to be said remained to be seen.

"_Jane, what you've done does not compare in any way to what he did to me- to my team."_

"Garrus..." she sighed. Her heavy brow and tired eyes met Sidonis', finding understanding, of all things. "I massacred an entire village. Men, women, children, old and young. All of them... Dead. I had no reason, revenge maybe, but that doesn't begin to explain it. I even killed an Alliance pilot just to cover it up. I'm sorry. God, that sounds so hollow..."

"_What...?_"

"If you can forgive me, you _will_ forgive him," she said, "If you have to kill him, you _will_ kill me."

Seconds ticked by as no one said anything. Jane and Sidonis stood and waited for judgment to pass. More seconds came and went and nothing was said. No one moved. The Spectre thought she had about a fifty-fifty chance of dying by her lover's hand at this point. She had betrayed him, lied to him through omission but lied nonetheless. He had just been informed that he was dating one of the most notorious, if unknown, war-criminals in the Galaxy. Along with the chance to kill her off in a rage, he could also settle a long-time debt with another person who had betrayed him and been responsible for the deaths of his entire team. It was either that, or he could let them both go. It hardly seemed like a choice. Now all she had to do was wait for the inevitable bullet to the brain.

"_Just... Just go. Both of you. Jane, I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at the old you_," he said, pausing for a moment before continuing, "_I need some time._"

Of course," she replied, "I'll be in the bar if you need me."

...

Jane could cry later if she had indeed lost the most beloved person in her life, but not now. Now there was still hope. Not much, but it was there. She wasn't dead yet, which was a little surprising. If Garrus had killed her, then she could definitely, probably, most likely, assume that he had broken up with her. And that hadn't happened, which was a good thing.

She looked around as she reentered the establishment, examining every corner, window, hallway, and alternate exit as she approached the bar. It was still too early for most patrons, as the place was predictably deserted. The bartender wasn't even there at the moment, most likely retreating into the back for a quick smoke. The Spectre slumped heavily down into one of the bar stools.

"_Jane Shepard?_" came a raspy feminine voice from behind her.

She sat up with a start. How the hell had anyone gotten behind her? It was around fifteen meters to the nearest entrance and there hadn't been another soul in the place. Weird.

Jane somehow recognized the voice. It sounded like someone she knew from her sixth-form years, but then again it could have just as easily been that reporter whose orbit bone she'd broken. Al-Jenny or something. If it was her, she had guts and would learn the hard way that a Spectre status always trumped a court summons. Sitting a little straighter at the bar, she turned in her bar-stool to face the unknown woman. To say she was a little shocked with what she saw was like saying the Citadel was a little big, krogans were a little violent, or Joker thought he was a little funnier than he actually was.

A reaction of pure surprise overcame her before she could reign it in. And while the Spectre couldn't recover that quickly such a bombshell- it just wasn't possible- she could certainly fake it. She gave the woman a tight, half-smile, her brow unwillingly creasing into a slight frown despite her best efforts.

"Well... Don't you look familiar," the captain said.

The woman rammed the barrel of a pistol past Jane's kinetic barriers, jabbing it right between her eyes.

The Spectre's biotics flared in the span of a heartbeat.

_**BAM! **_

.

.

.

.

And they dimmed just as quickly.

...

Looking through his scope at Sidonis as he ambled down the street to an unknown future, Garrus heard the shot fire. It had come from the bar where Jane had just entered. From her stake-out, he knew that the place should have been empty. The bartender had exited out the back, and the Elcor and Sid from the front. No one else but Jane had entered since then. His thermal optics confirmed as much. Through the walls of the establishment he could make out the heat signature of a single individual, and that person was lying still on the floor.

He shot to his feet and ran for the apartment door, catching a glimpse of Sidonis as the bare-faced turian did a one-eighty and ran back for the bar.

"Jane?!" Garrus yelled through the comm, rocketing down the stairs, taking them three or four at a time. "Babe, can you hear me?! Jane!"

Approaching the bar from the outside, he pushed his way past a crowd of onlookers too scared to enter and made his way inside. The grudge he held for Sidonis, the man who he had been intent on killing only moments ago, was a forgotten afterthought as the other turian plunged a medi-gel injector into Jane's lifeless body with one hand and pounded on the woman's chest with another.

"I'll do the chest compressions," said Garrus, far too concerned to be emotional over the prospect of a dead Jane Shepard. "You keep the medi-gel coming."

Sidonis did a double-take, nonplussed but perfectly willing to comply. He nodded and reached for a second injector, throwing the emptied first one aside. Garrus began pushing with all his might into the woman's chest, barely causing it to move at all, the exotic ceramic-metallic composite that made up her ribs refusing to yield more than a couple of centimeters under all of the turian's might. He would have to do better. He had little doubt that the Spectre's heart was no longer beating, a condition that would make circulating of the regenerative medicine through the length of the wound-track impossible. He sealed his hard lips against her soft ones and inflated her lungs just enough to see her chest rise. It took all his diaphragm could offer.

In between the second and third injections, Sidonis removed his over-shirt, bundling it up and placing it beneath Jane's head, elevating the wound and making it comfortable for her, should she somehow miraculously regain consciousness. That outcome seemed less and less likely. He readied another tube of medi-gel, this time inserting it directly into the wound, just above the bridge of her nose. He squirted some of the gel on a talon and began massaging it into the slightly larger hole in the back of her head.

The treatment managed to staunch the blood loss, but not much else. That hadn't been Garrus' major concern, anyway. While there was a sizeable amount of red human blood and a strange, oily, white fluid pooling about the back of Jane's head and soaking into the makeshift pillow, the woman was in no danger from bleeding out. The significant brain damage was another matter entirely. Already, the rapidly fluttering eyelashes of her left eye were beginning to slow. The eyeball underneath stared blankly to the ceiling, it's pupil fully dilated. In contrast, her right eye remained wide-open, and apparently normal as it stared frozen forever in the exact moment the shot rang out.

"I didn't do this," Sidonis said.

"I know," Garrus replied, "Where's the bartender?"

"Right here," said a salarian from behind the pair, "I was out back, talking to some friends. I have witnesses."

"I'll talk to _you_ later," said the ex-C-Sec officer, pointing to the timid barkeep, "And I'll be back for the security footage, but right now you can get the hell away before I shoot you just to be safe." He turned to Sidonis, "We need to take her to our people. We can meet them on the way to the docks."

"What good will that do?" the salarian asked, "I called the paramedics. They'll be here in seconds."

"Shut up and leave," said Sidonis, just as a soft whining noise filled the air.

"_Stand clear. Administering shock._" Jane's omni-tool chimed in. Garrus leaned away from the woman just in time to avoid an involuntary swipe of her arm. Her back fell to the floor with a dull thud. The wining noise resumed.

"If her med program is doing that, then she's in vee-fib. There's still hope." Garrus gave the other turian a brief look. "The doctors here won't be able to help her. They won't know the first thing about treating her."

Together, Garrus and Sidonis carried the human as fast as they could to an anxious Karin Chakwas, Miranda, and Tali as the women sprinted as fast as they could towards them, a gurney in tow. In moments, they had the Spectre, still clinging desperately to life, strapped into the advanced life-support device. Immediately, air hissed into and out of the machine, pressurizing and depressurizing the area inside the mass effect field and Jane's lungs along with it. The group set about racing for the docks as fast as they could. Tali took the lead, pushing the body of her captain ahead of her and using the durable floating litter to knock cursing passerby out of the way, returning curses as necessary.

Garrus would have liked to keep up, but there was no way he could match the naturally fast quarian over a short-distance sprint and, inside the gurney, she carried no extra weight whatsoever. Red human blood and that white fluid dripped and spattered along the concourse as she ran, leaving a gruesome trail in her wake. From meters in front of him he could hear still hear the regular whine-and-thump of the medical equipment as it tried and failed to coax Jane's dying heart into a normal rhythm. Every time it activated and he saw his future bondmate's body heaving up off the bed, then listened as it failed to produce the beeping of a regular heartbeat, he felt his insides crushing a little tighter.

As the Normandy just came into view of Garrus, Tali was already running headlong through the ship's outer hatch, disappearing with a hard right turn after the inner one.

"What should I do?" Sidonis wheezed from beside him, still running with the group.

"You want to try to make up for Omega?" Garrus asked, "Head back to that bar and find out who did this to her."

Stopping and turning on a dime, the other turian ran off in the direction they had come from.

...

"Don't worry, John, we're doing everything we can for her," said Tali, grabbing both of his hand in hers, "I can't say for certain, but the chances are good that she'll recover from this. I took a good look at the damage, and it seems like she can be made well again."

Indeed, she had been pouring over the woman's schematics with Miranda since they stabilized her, shortly after they brought her aboard. After that, they reopened her head-wound and sent an endoscope through to survey the damage first-hand. That had been the first time Tali had gotten a good look at the inner workings of 'Jane Shepard's' head, and frankly the quarian wished she had been surprised. It was exactly as she had suspected. In the end, Tali was chagrined to conclude that healing Jane was beyond her, as was the case with both Karin and Miranda. That was when the latter woman decided it was time to call in some extra help.

John looked down at his sister, gently pulling himself from Tali's grip to hold the red-haired woman's left hand. "Do you think she feels it?" he asked.

"Maybe," said Tali.

"I think she can," said Garrus from where he sat at her bedside, holding onto her right hand. He hadn't moved from that spot, from that position, since Jane had entered the med-bay half an hour ago.

"You might be right," admitted the quarian.

"She was shot in the head," said John, "How can she possibly recover from that?"

"It has to do with her cybernetics," said a new voice, Miranda, as she walked into the room. "I've just got off the QE with The Illusive Man. He's agreed to contact a third party who might be able to help."

"Help with this?" asked John, gesturing to the female Spectre.

He had a right to doubt, to fear. At this point, his only sister, Tali's only sister, was little more than a piece of warm meat being kept fresh by machines. It would be killing him inside to think that she would never recover from this and Tali wanted to do something about that. But telling him the whole story might make things worse, not just in the short term, but for the rest of his life. Was it not better to for him to live with a few days of anguish and then have everything return to normal when Cerberus or whoever arrived to fix Jane? _No, you stupid girl, he needs to know. Imagine if he found out because of this, and then realizes that you've suspected it this entire time? Forget that, he needs to know because he's her brother and it's the right thing to do, never mind how it makes you look in his eyes._

Resolved, Tali turned to John, fidgeting for the right words to begin this conversation. She turned to Garrus. He seemed to know what she was thinking and nodded. He knew it was the right decision too. Karin did the same thing when Tali turned in her direction. Miranda gave them all a questioning glance. Were she as perceptive as the former C-Sec officer she might have agreed. Probably.

John also nodded, apparently not knowing what this was all about, but wanting to fit in. Tali fixed him with an unseen, grim smile. "John, there's something you need to know..." she began.

John was about to say something when Garrus interrupted, "Shepard, listen, this will be hard for you... I... I only figured it out recently, but... Well, this confirmed it."

"What?" the human asked, "Do you think this isn't Jane or something? I know this is my sister. I know my own sister."

Tali had to admit, her human was perceptive.

"Yes! Yes, this is definitely your sister," said Garrus, "But I don't know if this is Jane Shepard."

"What the hell are you going on about, Garrus? I don't have any other sisters," he said, pointing to the fallen Spectre, "And I know. This is Jane."

"Just listen to him, John," said Tali, pulling her human into her arms, "This was hard for me too, Ancestors, believe me, there has never been anything in the galaxy harder for me to come to terms with, but we know what we're talking about. I know what I've seen, or, I mean, what I haven't seen..."

Dumbfounded and speechless, John looked between the two other humans in the room, then back to Tali. The look on his face crushed her. It was of betrayal. _Keelah, did I do the right thing in letting them tell him? Did I do the right thing in not bringing up my suspicions? My accusations? What should I have said? Hey, inszel, I think your beloved sister is an AI imposter. Not only that, but I actually missed her so much that I'm starting not to care. Now that the air is clear, how about those Collectors and their Reaper masters? _

Garrus continued, "The _Normandy_ was traveling fast when she was hit. That means you and Jane were traveling fast when you made entry into Alchera's atmosphere, not a simple free-fall like you thought. And the eezo explosion before you hit sent you in even faster."

"How fast?" John asked.

"Telemetry from your suits indicates about nine thousand meters per second, or a little over mach twenty-six," the turian replied, "It seems... Jane saved you. She rotated her body beneath yours and locked her suit into place that way. Her suit's mass effect fields, from her kinetic barriers, were good enough to stabilize your descent in that position, but not for much else."

"So, then the..." John said trailing off.

"The damage to Jane's helmet came from shattering on impact after being super-heated from the fall," Garrus finished for him.

Miranda spoke up this time. "Any part of her brain that wasn't completely cooked by the time you two hit ended up scattered into all over the planet's surface. When we finally got a look at her body, her head was little more than a face stretched over an empty shell of bone. I'm sorry."

"Then how...?"

"Composite memories," continued the operative, "Reverse engineered from extensive holo-recordings, personality analysis tests from the Alliance, and a brain-scan from one particular asari with whom she had melded just prior to her death."

"Liara knew what you were up to?" asked John, "Is this even possible? It couldn't have been complete. How did she not know something was wrong with her? Was it some kind of program you put in her so she wouldn't question it?"

"There was no control software of any kind installed," said Miranda, "And her memories probably weren't complete, but... Your memories are all you know of yourself. Even if they are incomplete, mismatched, filled with feelings rather than facts, or in some cases even in the third person, would you question them? How could you possibly ever know to question them?"

"I just don't know..."

"Johnny," Chakwas said, getting up and pressing a hand around his upper arm, "It was the only way to bring her back. I had my reservations, I still do, but the galaxy needs her, humanity needs her. You need her. Every time I talk to her now I know they made the right decision. I would never have wanted her left for dead in that facility. I can't think of her as anyone but Jane, that's who she is to me. But let me tell you something. I saw the original, unaltered footage of the operation. They pulled her artificial brain out of a box and unwrapped it from an anti-static bag."

"You knew?" the Spectre asked.

She nodded, as did Tali.

"How long?"

"Since the beginning," the doctor replied, "I made the decision to keep it from you because I care about both of you deeply and I thought it was for the best."

"And you, Tali?"

The quarian felt a renewed surge of guilt rise inside her. She hated herself for keeping anything, especially this, from John. She told herself that it would have changed things to voice her concerns to her human earlier, possibly causing an impossible rift between the man and their sister. Was it all for nothing? Would his relationship with Jane ever be the same again, knowing that the woman lying on the bed before him could be regarded as an imposter, a usurper of body, memories, and identity, while his real sister might now be one with the ancestors? _It's time to come clean and not hold back. Ancestors, I hope he understands, I hope he can forgive me._

"I wasn't certain until now, but I've strongly suspected it since I got a look at her schematics," she said, "There was absolutely no data available on what they did inside her head. I could have pressured Miranda or Karin into telling me earlier, but I didn't. It wouldn't have mattered. It wouldn't have changed anything for the better if I had known for certain."

"I've got to go," mumbled John, shaking his head, "I'll be in the hold with Jack, prepping for our next mission... Tali, make sure she gets the help she needs, then come find me."

...

Strains of an old human song interrupted Xen's thoughts and the delicate work she attended to. She turned from the spectral analysis she had been running and started for her secure desk communicator. It rang with the distinctive tone she had reserved for only one person.

She activated the small device as she landed in her leather chair with enough force that she had to kick out a foot to stop it from spinning. "Why hello, my love," she said, "I hope this means you've recovered enough from our last encounter for another round."

"_I have, my dear, medi-gel is a wonderful thing. But that isn't why I called_," he replied, "_We have an issue. Jane Shepard was shot in the head about an hour ago. They managed to keep her heart beating and her lungs ventilated. Organic tissue damage is minimal_."

"Galatea is offline?" she asked, "That is quite an issue indeed... We could be set back months. I don't give a pyjak's arse about the organics, but what's the damage to the node array?" Xen opened a desk drawer and began pulling a set of palm sized cubes from a desk drawer, one at a time, and placing them on her antique wooden desk.

"_My operative sent me all the information she could. I'll forward it to you now. From what I can see, I'd say we're looking at somewhere between a five and thirty percent loss._"

As her human spoke, a new e-mail popped up in the quarian admiral's inbox. Opening the document, she scrolled to the bottom and opened up the waiting attachment.

Perusing through the file, she spoke, "These pictures are acceptable," said Xen, "And the diagnostic trouble codes are as I would expect. I concur with your judgment. It could have been worse. The node array has some memory redundancies for just such an occurrence, but processor power will be limited until we can get the hardware back online and new programs installed. I will need to examine the unit, conduct the repairs, and install the software in person."

"_Naturally_," he said. Xen could hear the smile in her human's voice. "_So I imagine you'll be handling this as soon as possible. Do you have everything you need right now, or is there something I can get for you?_"

"I think my resources here are adequate for the task at hand," she replied, briefly glancing down at the half-dozen metallic cubes sitting on her desk. "I will be departing for the _Normandy_ immediately."

"_Be sure to get the full tour while you're there and call me when you arrive. Miranda can set you up with the quantum entanglement communicator. I've got to go- things with Overlord are becoming less than optimal- but I'll see you soon._"

"I love you," she blurted out before she could stop herself. Calling someone 'My Love' and actually saying 'I love you' were galaxies apart in her book. She hoped her human didn't see it that way, that he wasn't able to see her sincere slip-up for what it was. She didn't know how she'd react if he didn't respond in kind, or ancestors forbid, actually denied that he held such an emotion. Falling in love with a species so flippant and unpredictable with their emotions was courting with passionate disaster. Embarrassed by her display of affection, and hoping to avoid the pain of certainty, she reached out to close the comm before she could hear either his response of lack thereof.

"_I love you too_," he said as Xen's finger just began to graze the haptic control. She snapped her hand back as if she'd just been about to poke a venomous reptile. "_And I miss you_."

"Oh, I miss-!" she squealed, right before being cut short. Her smiling human had closed the connection. She pounded her fist on the desk with a growl, the cubes and office supplies bouncing against her fury. "_Bosh'tet_ filthy human primate dog! You think you had it bad last time?!"

As quick as her fury arrived, it departed again. The woman turned pensive, slowly shaking her head. "_Keelah_, I really do love him..."

She had been mad at him, but unlike with potentially everything else in the galaxy, both animate and inanimate, she couldn't stay that way for long. In less than ten seconds the contented warmth of his words had spread throughout her entire body. The admiral curled into a giddy heap in the soft suede of her chair. Once upon a time, she could have occasionally become despondent over the future of her research and her ability to return the quarian people to their rightful place at the head of the galaxy, but with him it was different. The quarian race would rise to power again, with Clan Xen at the pinnacle. Or would it be clan Harper now? That would work out just as well for her; even better in fact. With him, she really did feel like she could dominate the entire universe.

For now though, she still had a plethora of trivial matters to attend to, like dead Spectres. She stabbed at her omni-tool's haptic controls.

"_Hello, Aunt Xen. What can I do for you?_"

"Seera, Darling, have Major Reegar acquire a shuttle. I would like the two of you to meet me in my office on the _Moreh_," she said, "We are going to pay a visit to the _Normandy_."

"_But why, Aunt? This is unexpected. We just left her._"

"Don't be insolent," she said, "It is not your place to question an admiral, Niece. But, If you must know, Jane Shepard has been killed-"

"_Wha-!_"

Xen hissed in annoyance, "_And _I intend to bring her back."

"_Are you...? How can you...?_"

Again, her niece insisted on questioning her. She shouldn't have expected any less. The girl had been that way since her birth some thirty years ago. Daro had known from the moment she'd laid eyes on the infant girl, when she'd returned from her pilgrimage and been reunited with darling older sister and her _bosh'tet_ commoner bondmate, that Seera'Vael would be trouble. Her only regret was not being able to instill more discipline in the child. Xen took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"Do not doubt me, darling child," she said, "I had no trouble the first time, and shan't have any trouble this time either."

...

"I suppose this was bound to happen eventually," said Xen, shining a pocket flashlight into Jane's eyes, each in turn, holding her eyelids open with her free hand.

Releasing Seera's hand, Tali folded her arms across her chest. Just what in the human hell did Xen mean by that? The woman must have read her body language out of the corner of her eye, because the engineer soon had her answer.

"Calm yourself, Lieutenant; I hear you are quite the Demon when you're angry. I don't mean this incident specifically," the admiral said, "But those of us who serve in the military, particularly in the combat branches, assume an inherent risk of violent death and dismemberment, wouldn't you agree?"

Tali mumbled untranslatable human curses to Xen as she turned away. The Admiral froze and stared at the girl, the light in her mask dimming as her gaze narrowed into a frown. Letting the sinister glare linger for a moment, she turned away from the younger woman. Tali squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip, forgetting that Daro had no need for a translator when it came to the humans' barking tongue. The young woman had effectively insulted a superior officer in the worst terms imaginable, to her face no less.

After her initial reaction, Xen seemed too interested in the limp human in front of her to care too much about any offenses. Moving to the side of the Spectre, she began pulling instruments out the large field-pack that she had Kal carry aboard with him. Those devices seemed to straddle between the realms of medicine and technology in a way that Tali had never seen before. Each item must have been hand-crafted for this task alone.

In hushed tones, Daro began conversing with Miranda, paying Doctor Chakwas almost no mind despite the doctor's best efforts to insert herself into the dialogue. It took a sharp glare at the ship's executive before the older human woman could get a word in edge-wise.

"And what of her?" asked the doctor, pointing to their patient, "Her body?"

"Her body will be fine," answered the Admiral, "Oh, wait, you mean her flesh? The window dressing on her true form?"

"Yes," Karin hissed, "her _flesh_. You're not just going to flay her so you can get to her mechanicals, are you?"

"She has hardly enough of that to be concerned with, Doctor," said Xen, "Just some skin, fatty tissues, a human heart, and a few lingering skeletal muscles for her face, and that's about it, I'm afraid. But rest assured, you did a good job in preserving her organics and I will not waste that effort. I would hate to spend the resources in re-growing what doesn't have to be. But I will need access to the node array. Her brain."

As the Admiral, with Miranda assisting, made her first incision into the top of Jane's head, Tali asked, "So how do you plan on doing this?"

"Curious, are we?" Xen replied, "I respect that. It is quite simple. I will repair the hardware damage with nanites. I coded the repair algorithms myself."

Tali's posture radiated disbelief as she absentmindedly began running scans of all Xen's equipment. She had no idea what she was looking for, but she knew full well what she didn't want to see. Anything that might have malicious code was about to be on the receiving end of a pinpoint overload.

"You were able to create the repair protocols that quickly?" she asked, "I don't believe it. There was nothing about her brain in what I sent you, and the only time you were able to download any data directly was just after my trial, two days ago."

"You and Seera have a nasty habit of questioning me," said the other quarian. "You need to correct that. I have had this ready for some time, as I am the one who originally designed her _brain_ in the first place."

Tali didn't know what to make of that, except for the fact that it sounded plausible and that she hated the woman even more for her use of air-quotes when she said 'brain.' It was a good thing Jane wasn't awake. She would have had no qualms about kneeing the admiral in the gut for such comments.

Could Xen really be telling the truth, through? It was true that the woman was the galaxy's foremost expert in AIs. But didn't she specialize in only one kind of AI?

Xen continued, absentmindedly holding apart Jane's scalp as she spoke and probing the inside with a tool, "Her memory, the portions of which might have been damaged in the attack, can be re-uploaded from what I downloaded after the trial-"

"Wait a minute..." Tali tried to form a coherent sentence, but she was beginning to feel light-headed. Something felt very wrong here, as if she was back in school and just handed in her engineering final only to suspect that she had been using the wrong formula for half the questions. Daro'Xen was a _geth_ expert. She had devoted her life to them, to reclaiming them as useful servants. What did she know about human or Cerberus AIs?

Miranda and Karin were now holding Jane's scalp apart, clamping the flaps of skin and pulling them aside. Xen continued, undaunted, speaking as she removed sections of Jane's skull to access what lay inside. A strangely familiar white fluid poured out. "-will be compared to what I have and to the back-up files, and replaced if necessary-"

"Hold on, this... This doesn't make sense..." No. Tali realized it _did_ make sense, perfect sense, but her mind refused to accept the obvious conclusion. Jane's AI brain had been outsourced, delivered to project Galatea by its creator, Xen, if the woman was to be believed. That 'brain' wasn't of a Cerberus origin or even a human one. It was quarian. And that meant... _Ancestors, save me... Save her... The sister of my beloved, my sister, my only family..._

Xen kept narrating her intentions aloud, pulling out a collection of small cubes from her pack, setting them on a nearby tray and using a long wire to connect them to each other and then to the hardware in Jane's head. "-And fortunately for us, your father _had_ been unintentionally replicating the necessary runtimes at a feverish pace. There should be more than enough here to replace what was lost. I've already flashed their original operating memory-"

"How many?" Tali asked, feeling week in the knees. _Useful servants..._

"-and will be good as new-"

"How many are there?" she asked again, over the uneasiness in her stomach and the rising vomit in her throat. _Cerberus and Xen want the same thing... Useful Servants..._

"-But she will require more visits-"

"_How many _det kazuat_ geth did you put in my sister?!_" Tali finally screamed.

"Hmm?" Daro turned to regard the young woman, as if noticing her for the first time ever, "Oh, I used around a hundred-forty-four thousand runtimes in this unit."

...

**So there it is. I would love to read your thoughts on the reveal. Did it take you by surprise? Did you see it coming? How well was it done? I need your feedback on this. Even a few words will do.**

**Author's note: In Calinstel's Quarians, a severe blow to the head or heavy intoxication will cause their forebrain's to shut down and go into repair mode, so to speak. This leaves only their hindbrain in control, turning them essentially feral. I decided that Tali drinks (or will drink) way too much for that to be a common occurrence. To that end, in my universe only a Jimmy Hendrix/Jim Morrison level of alcohol poisoning will cause a quarian to go feral, in addition to traumatic brain injuries. Before I decided this, I wrote an entire scene where Feral-Tali meets John. PM if you're interested in reading it. It is non-canon to my universe.**

**Sorry for the long update, but it is the nature of the beast at this point. This story will not be abandoned, so long as interest remains demonstrably high.**

**Please Review, Fav, Follow.**


	20. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

**Glad to be back, ladies and gents. As I have said many times before, this story is NOT going away. I have been given a promotion of position at work, not one of rank (although that's coming). In short, my duties have become manifestly greater while my pay remains the same. It is what it is. Nevertheless, this story is what I do with my free time, and I still get some of that occasionally. I say again, fear not, this story will continue.**

**...**

**Check out Massive Gain by my buddy Morgaur if you want some more WE Twin Shep goodness. I'm providing technical expertise to him on military matters, as well as beta work.**

**...**

**A special thanks to _my_ beta, TITANJC! You're the best, buddy. **

**...**

**A final thanks to my favoriters, followers, and reviewers! I do this for you guys.**

**...**

**Here's a character recap, cause it's been a while. Some of the stuff in here is things that haven't even come up in the story, but they're happening. Please enjoy:**

**John - Upset that Tali didn't tell him about her suspicions that Jane's brain had been replaced with an AI. Doesn't know it's geth. Currently prepping for Jack's mission.**

**Jane - Comatose, pending recovery.**

**Garrus - Will not leave Jane's side, and everyone knows better than to ask him to do so.**

**Tali - Just finished working on Jane. Current whereabouts aboard the **_**Normandy**_** are unknown. Is still upset with Joker about the Twins' death and has yet to say a single word to him since the SR1 was destroyed.**

**Chakwas - In the medbay, monitoring Jane, bringing food for Garrus.**

**Xen - Headed back to the Fleet immediately after the operation.**

**Kal and Seera - Took Xen back to the Fleet. Planning for their lavish (by quarian standards) nuptials. **

**Miranda - Doing XO stuff, like Jacob.**

**Jacob - Doing boring stuff, like Miranda.**

**Mordin - Received word that his apprentice may need help and has convinced John and Jane (prior to her injury) to head to Tuchanka after Jack's mission.**

**Grunt - Really upset at everything.**

**Lia - Gave up on doing anything with Joker other than playing Galaxy of Fantasy. Starting to enjoy combat training more and more. Happy to be of service to everyone. **

**Kelly - Happy to be of **_**service**_** to everyone.**

**Liara - Still the Shadowbroker, raising Jane Jr. with Matriarch Aethyta aboard the Shadowbroker vessel. Has almost assuredly gotten wind of Jane's incident.**

**Joker - Still has a love/hate relationship with EDI, although it's leaning more one way than the other. Is unaware that Tali is upset with him.**

**EDI - Struggling with understanding the thing human****s**** call 'love'. Ha ha, J/K. But seriously, likes to spend time with Joker.**

**Kasumi - Immersed in her greybox. Comes out to visit Jane.**

**Zaeed - Has taken on the role of both physical fitness and infantry combat instructor. He's a natural. Some of his charges are more eager to learn than others.**

**Samara - Unbeknownst to anyone, she has retracted her not-so-veiled threat against Jane, since according to her line of reasoning, the Jane that was responsible for Torfan no longer exists.**

**Legion - ****Has ****not yet made contact with the twins.**

**Thane - Spends time brooding, hanging out with Samara, and brooding with Samara.**

**Jack - Still likes Shep a lot. Thinks he's not only good looking, but just her type, since she has a thing for adult boyscouts. Supported in canon, since you can't even romance her (beyond nailing her once in the back of the cargo hold) unless you abstain from some renegade options. Females with ambivalent physical attractions not withstanding, she is the only non-Tali crewmember with feelings for M!Shep.**

**Valley Girl Quarian - Not in this story, but has nonetheless returned to her human boyfriend. There is no cure for Monkey Fever.**

**...**

**And now for a summary of Loyalty Missions:**

**We are currently Prepping for Jack's. Grunt's and Mordin's are next. Samara's and thane's have not been discussed yet, let alone legion's. All others have been completed.**

**And now, the story:**

Chapter 20: Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

"Hey, honey? Honey? You with me?"

"Nnnnh Huuuuu..."

Ashley stared into Kaidan's glazed over eyes and slumped a little, her hands falling away from his cheeks to rest atop her thighs. She frowned a little, wondering if her timing in waking her husband had been off. "Damn," she muttered.

"Damn what?" Kaidan muttered back, rubbing the sleep from his eyes with his fingers, "Just tired is all."

"You're clear headed?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Good, because I have some great news for you." She looked down at her husband expectantly, her smiling face looming over his, her eyebrows raising to reveal wide, unnaturally cheerful brown eyes.

"I'll bet it's great news. I don't think you've ever woken me up like this before," he said, pausing briefly to amend his words, a smile of his own brightening his face, "on purpose, anyway."

"We're going to Tunchanka to see the twins in two days! Isn't that exciting?!" She rubbed both his cheeks in her hands, mushing them together to pucker his lips before kissing him there, as she had often done. "There's so little time and we need to get ready."

Thinking about it, she realized she may have been sounding- and acting- a bit patronizing. She pulled away to sit next to him, assuming a much more dignified posture. Not only was he technically, maybe still, a superior officer, but he was very aware of his surroundings at the moment and free to make his displeasure known.

"Sorry," she muttered almost under her breath.

"For what?" he asked, "The kissy-face thing? I love it when you do that."

It felt like her skin was on fire from the shame. Not even its deep bronze color could hide the reddening in her face and ears. "You… Really remember that? All those times?" she asked.

"Yeah, and it's the sweetest thing ever," he replied, "It keeps me going. Not to change the subject, but before I need to be put under I have to ask… Is this just a family reunion, or does this trip have something to do with, well... Fixing me?

"Yes! I'm not sure how it's going to work," she admitted, getting up to retrieve the auto-injector from her nightstand drawer. She returned to her husband's bedside, gesturing casually with the device as she spoke. "But we'll hang out there for a bit, wait until they're done with whatever they're doing there, and then head off to their new ship. It's the _Normandy II_ or something."

"That sounds interesting," he said, "So there's a doctor on the ship who can help?"

Ashley turned away, squinting as if looking off into a sunrise. "That's where I'm a little fuzzy on the whole idea..."

She turned back to him, unsure of how to say what she intended without perhaps upsetting him and ruining his last lucid memory for a while. Ordinarily it wouldn't matter much, but the hard truth was that there was some small chance that this would be the last time she ever spoke to him. Brain surgery wasn't exactly like carving a turkey where one missed cut would not spoil someone's thanksgiving. All of this was compounded by the fact that she had really forgotten how to speak to the man. She prayed every night and day that she would get the chance to learn that particular skill all over again.

"I'm used to fuzzy ideas," he chuckled, rubbing a hand up and down her bare stomach as if to gently coax the words out of her. "So what's the plan?"

"Well, I'm gonna stay with the twins for a bit while you go off and get treatment," she said slowly, carefully, "Their XO knows of a certain quarian cyber-physician who's agreed to help. She's supposed to be really, really good at this sort of thing. Doctor Xen, I think the name is."

...

"So, how's your sister doing?"

Stepping into the Normandy's cargo hold, John turned to the sound of the voice. Surly, foreboding, and hints of sex appeal and warmth that its owner couldn't quite disguise well enough, it belonged to just the woman he was looking for. Jack paused in the middle of loading a fresh thermal magazine into her sub-machinegun to give the man a look of uncertain concern. Her eyes grew wide and her lips tightly creased together. For the first time in John's recollection, it seemed that Jack was showing obvious concern about someone other than herself, rather than the typical disquiet that she usually kept heavily veiled behind artificial scorn. He couldn't help cracking a meager smile despite himself.

"Not sure," he said, keeping his voice neutral, almost hard, "I went to see her, but she's still under at the moment. Medically induced coma. Garrus is with her. Tali, Xen, and Karin seem to think she'll be fine. It'll just take time, they tell me."

"You know... We could put my errand on hold so we can find the guy that did this to her," Jack offered. She seemed sincere enough, eager even, to go looking for the culprit. "I don't mind waiting a little longer."

"No need," John replied, "Garrus has an old acquaintance looking into it. Someone who knows a lot more about people who don't want to be found than we do. Not to mention that when word gets out that Jane is still alive, her assassin will try again. We'll be ready."

"You... Want to talk about it? The whole situation?" In the awkward silence that followed, the young woman rolled her eyes at her own comment, apparently not liking how it made her sound. "Or, you know, whatever."

"Nope."

A look of uncertainty flashed in the biotic's eyes. Either this was not the response she was expecting, or she didn't like it. The young woman placed her weapon down on the workbench in front of her, turning her full attention to the Spectre. "Okay..."

The silence that had filled the cavernous room returned in force, befitting of the metaphorical elephant that no one wanted to discuss. John knew he should probably have talked about what happened to his sister. Discussing it might have made him feel better. But every time words came to mind, they died somewhere along the road to his throat. How should one begin a conversation that would end with, 'By all rights, my sister should have died in a bar this morning, but it's okay, it turns out she's just a robot and actually died two years ago?'

He decided to change the subject. "Can you tell me anything else about this mission?"

"Not a mission, really," she said with a shrug, "Just some therapy. You and I go into my old prison. I'll probably look around for a bit, then I plant a bomb and blow the place to Hell. Too easy."

John nodded to himself, but the gesture felt empty even as he was doing it. He could have asked if there was going to be any trouble. He could have looked into whether the facility was occupied by squatters, scavengers, or even pirates, among other possibilities. He could have had EDI look up the floor plans for the place, but he didn't. Part of him wanted to plan out the operation, same as always, but that wasn't going to happen either. He just couldn't muster the energy to care. He would go in with a full battle-load and see what happened.

"Sounds good," he replied. Scratching at the back of his neck and feeling as if he owed her more than two words, he added as an after-thought, "I hope it brings you some closure."

"It will," she said, pulling up a stool to the workbench and taking a seat on it. "I... I need this. What I went through at that place... They fucking broke me. Those Cerberus bastards broke me. The things they did..."

A shudder ran through the woman's body and her eyes glazed over. When she spoke next, her voice sounded shaken and wavering. John tried to appear sympathetic as he motioned for her to continue.

"I... I had to kill people," she said slowly, trying her best to get the words out and suppress any emotion they held. She had years of practice at it, John knew, but by now he could see through it, see how much effort it took from her. "Kids... Kids trapped like me. Forced to fight and die. And for what? Why? Why did they do that to me? To them? What the fuck did they hope to get out of it?"

Those questions broke the Spectre out of his stony shell of apathy, if only to force him to ponder how best to respond. Would she appreciate the truth, the reality as he saw it?

As best as the Spectre could tell, Cerberus was never able to make use of her. In all probability, they could _never_ have controlled her enough to make use of her. Not after what she went through. Mind control today was far from perfect, let alone twenty odd years ago. Even using her for cloning could never have worked. All the evidence suggested that susceptibility to eezo mutations was anything but hereditary in humans. John and his own twin sister made a strong case against that possibility. In the end, there was nothing gained from any of Jack's pain, loss, and torture.

On the other hand, he could remark on how Cerberus probably spent years collecting terabytes of extremely valuable data on her. That the reason they kept searching for her was to use her as some grand weapon in some twisted scheme to elevate humanity's biotic potential far above that of even the asari. Using her as a template for neuro-prosthesis, perhaps. He could argue that Jack had a vast potential for greatness that was forced upon her, and how it was now up to her to use it for the good of all sentience. It might pump up her ego a bit, make her think that in some small way her suffering, the atrocities she had to commit, and the lives of all those children had been spent on something. Anything.

But that was a lie.

"Cerberus is one of the worst terrorist organizations in human history," he said, his head shaking solemnly, "My guess is that the people that did this to you were the at the bottom of that particular barrel. I... I don't think it's possible to speculate more than that."

She nodded knowingly, as if she had come to the same conclusion. He could tell his words hadn't made her feel any better, but he just wasn't in the mood to sugar-coat the universe anymore. The best he could do was to not admit to what he really felt about her situation.

"Yeah," she breathed out, the word almost dying in her throat, "Yeah. Your right. Want to... To do some target practice?"

John got up and started walking towards one of the arms lockers. "Sure."

...

"Human."

Although the word was spoken in an even tone, it was loud enough to startle both the commander and the convict into missing their shots. They turned to find a rather irritated looking krogan standing, arms akimbo, in the door-frame of the cargo bay. The toothy grimace on his face, meant to intimidate, did nothing more to John than cause him to roll his eyes. Hopefully, as Grunt was still technically a child, he would one day learn that sometimes he could achieve better results by putting on a brave face rather than letting his emotions govern his behavior.

"Yeah?" both Jack and John answered together.

"Not you, female," Grunt replied, "The male. I wish to join you on this mission."

"Not my mission," the Spectre said with a shrug.

"But... You are her Battlemaster." the krogan said, wagging his finger at the human. Head cocked a little to the side, his expression gave the impression of disbelief, as he could conceive of the commander being anywhere where he wasn't in charge.

Tali would have ended up rolling about the deck in fits of laughter at that thought. Her confidence in his presence had gone from dormouse to lioness overnight, at least from his point of view. Those two years must have seemed like an eternity to her. With a sigh, John pushed the image of the quarian from his mind.

"Yeah, he'll be there," said Jack, "But just to help out."

"Then I want to help, too," Grunt replied, "Help... Kill things. I need to kill things."

John glanced over at his fellow human. She caught his eye and furrowed her brow before pressing both her palms into her face. It was clear that she neither wanted nor needed the krogan's help. Knowing him, he might not be satisfied with the lack of slaughter and would demand to push the detonator button when he realized there was to be a bomb involved. Still though, in case things did heat up with pirates or squatters, or there were excessively dangerous fauna in evidence, it might help to have him along. Hopefully, Jack saw it that way too.

"Yeah, alright," she said, reluctantly nodding ascent. That showed a surprising amount of foresight for a convict with no planning experience. If they made it out of the mission alive, the Spectre began to think that just maybe, with a little help from a record expungement, she would do alright as a civilian.

In response, the krogan bashed his fists together and gave a ringing war-cry.

Jack and John spent the next few minutes going over the mission with Grunt, giving special weight to the mundane nature of the trip and how he shouldn't get his hopes up. The krogan wasn't happy about it, exactly, but when his options were to either go with them or stay aboard the ship, he seemed more than eager to play along. When he heard enough, he stormed off without preamble intent on preparing his armor and weapons.

"Something's wrong with him," said John, scratching the back of his neck, as the krogan stalked away. "More so than usual, for a krogan."

"Ya think?" Jack scoffed, "I think Okeer may've cooked the big baby a little too long. Overloaded his brains or something. Let me know if we need to put him down."

While some kind of genetic or learning error was certainly possible, John had a hunch that the exact opposite was far more likely. Everything he had learned about Grunt told him that the young krogan was a perfect specimen of the species, suffering from far too little guidance, not from some kind of overload or error that he just couldn't cope with. Perhaps the solution to the krogan's problem was just that simple, then. He was an orphan without a parent, in need of some strong guidance from his own kind.

"No, we're not gonna kill him if we can help it," said John, "We're going to Tuchanka after this mission. Mordin's concerned about his apprentice or something. We'll try and get someone there to help with Grunt. Wrex maybe. If worst comes to worst, we'll just leave him dirt-side. It was a risk bringing him along anyway, and he wasn't the krogan we were looking for."

"Tuchanka, huh?" Jack asked, "Sounds like a party. Still though, gonna borrow some of your HEI rounds for whenever Grunt's around. Just in case."

"Yeah, alright, but you shouldn't-"

A ring-tone began playing on John's omni-tool, interrupting his admonishment of the convict. Looking down, the Spectre rolled his eyes. It was his mother calling. A call from her this soon after someone taking a shot at his sister in broad daylight could only mean one thing. She had just heard about the incident and wanted answers.

Tension welled within him as he jammed his finger onto the answer button. What would he say? What could he say? _Remember how you thought your daughter died two years ago and then it turned out you were wrong?_ _Well, surprise! You're wrong again!_

But what would that solve? The woman in the medbay definitely thought she was his sister and her daughter. Was it fair to tear away from her the person that she knew as her mother? Was it fair to take away his mother's daughter? Jane deserved a life free of pain and complications. She was still a person. Probably. Again, he wondered what the point of all that would be. The truth was its own reward? _Like hell it is._

His finger made contact with the haptic control, catching his mother mid-sentence.

"_**...hell happened to my baby girl?!**_"

John closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting the pause inject an air of stability into the conversation. When he spoke next, he did so slowly and deliberately. "Calm down, Mom. She'll be fine."

"_How can you say that? She was shot in the head!_"

"She had her shields up," he replied, glancing up at Jack. The woman appeared impassive, but he couldn't shake the feeling that she thought less of him for the blatant lie. "The round was slowed enough to just barely graze her forehead. You know how these things are always blown out of proportion."

"_That's a God damned lie! Someone took vids of it and she was unconscious! There were a couple of turians that couldn't revive her. They carried her out on a stretcher. One of them had to be Garrus. Mr. Walk-Off-A-Rocket-To-The-Face does _not_ strike me as the type to blow things out of proportion. _"

Her voice sounding strained. A woman who commanded a dreadnaught into interstellar battles, whom the Alliance felt was qualified to be an admiral and command a fleet of warships, sounded strained. John shook his head and quietly sighed to himself.

"_Am I going to have to call him to get a straight answer about my own daughter because my son won't tell me the truth?! Give me his number._"

"Mom! Would I lie to you?" he asked, "Would I lie to you about something like this?" _Yes._

A moment's pause on the com channel, then, "_No._"

"You're damn right I wouldn't," he said, trying to sound wounded. _Yes I would. About this... I don't think I have a choice._

At that thought, realization struck him. He had just lied to his own mother about his sister. He lied about the fate of an Alliance Captain's daughter to her own face, metaphorically. It was wrong on many levels, but he couldn't see a way around it. Not really. Not without causing untold pain with no appreciable gain. It was exactly as Tali had done to him. No, not _to_ him, but _for_ him. Too bad it didn't work out for him as well as his fiancé would have liked. Could not his mother find out as easily as he had? _That's a risk I'm willing to take..._

"_Alright, alright. But_ _I tried calling her, and couldn't get through. Why? Go get her and let me speak to her, then. Let me hear my own daughter tell me she's okay._"

"She's not here." John almost fell on his face when Jack's knee hit the back of his. He gave her an irate look. Her response was a silent scowl and folded arms.

"_John Alan Shepard, I am calling you on your bullshit this instant! I don't give a damn if you're on leave, I'm ordering you to the nearest star base..._"

John used his free hand to send a text-only message to EDI, fervently hoping that the AI would understand his instructions and assist him out of this little situation.

"..._or I'm coming out there myself..."_

Static filled the com channel. Sporadic at first, it grew to a constant noise, almost obscuring the irate captain's voice entirely.

"_...what...noise...?_"

"Sorry, mom, got to run. Ship's nearing a magnetar... Lots of interference." He actually bit his lip and put on the apologetic face he'd used to get himself out of trouble as a child.

"_...which...?_"

John realized there were only a few magnetars in the galaxy, and Alliance ships could be patrolling near any one of them. Not to mention that he couldn't name a single magnetar to save his life. Space was his sister's deal, not his. He glanced over at the holopad near the door, motioning with a hand the universal sign for 'hurry up'. "Sorry, not magnetar, I meant nebula. We're inside a nebula."

Whatever his mother had to say next only came through as a garbled mess. A few more seconds passed where there was nothing more than a hiss to attest to the uncomfortable conversation he had been having. Unable to hang up on his own mother, even after lying to her, his omni-tool stepped in to declare 'Signal Lost' in bright red letters hovering over his wrist.

"Thank God, EDI," John sighed, taking up a seat next to Jack at the work bench where she'd retreated to clean her weapon. "I wasn't sure you'd understood the message."

"_You mean 'get my ... mother off the phone' with an exclamation point at the end and an explicative somewhere in the middle? Yes, it was highly confusing,_" she deadpanned, "_Initially confounded, I eventually took the subtle nuance of your meaning. I used the ship's electronic warfare suite to jam the signal._"

"Good thinking," he replied.

"_It was either that, or impersonate Jane._"

"You can do that?" he asked.

"_Not well. But yes, at Jane's request I have been assuming her 'weekly call home' duties. Your mother has not noticed."_

..

Tali hugged herself, arms wrapping tight around her waist and torso. She crossed back and forth in front of the closed cargo bay doors. She felt torn. Part of her wanted more than anything to storm into the ground team's makeshift training area and demand to know why her_inszel_ had been spending so much time with his fellow human. No, his female and _single_ fellow human. Who happened to the same age as Tali, about as young as someone John's age could date and not look like a creep, and fairly attractive by human standards. That was in spite of, or perhaps because of, all her body art. She sincerely hoped her competition hadn't given him a full tour of the gallery.

_Competition_. That was such an ugly, disgusting word. She shouldn't _have_ to compete for her mate any longer. This wasn't her fist month aboard the SR-1. And if she was being honest with herself, as much as Ashley and Liara's presence had upset her, they were never any challenge at all and she knew it. Despite all Tali's flaws, her unwomanly shyness, her pension for nerdy distraction, her complete inability to remain coherent in front of John outside of combat, her duty to the fleet, and above all, the imposing physical limitations, They had just… Clicked.

It was reminiscent of the way he was now clicking with Jack. Tali shuddered from a chill while a bead of sweat ran down the small of her back to be soaked up by her suit. Lia'Vael's data be damned, thoughts of adulterous humans ran through her head, thoughts of John growing tired of her and finding comfort in the arms of another. Bitterly, she drew small satisfaction from the fact that Jack too might feel that same sting once John also grew tired of her. Or would she? Maybe this wasn't so much about growing tired of someone as it was about the sheer practicality of the situation. Like all men, John probably wanted kids, a family to raise. Tali couldn't give him that. But Jack could.

Then again, this line of thinking probably only meant it was time to stop letting self-doubt run her life and ruin the one good thing she had left in it. John Shepard would never, could never, ever, do a fraction of what she feared. And that's all this was, fear from uncertainty, not to mention an incredibly unjustified fear. Yes, she had done something stupid to him yet again, but it was nothing compared to the love they had for each other.

The part of her that didn't want to rush into the training area and demand answers told her to stay put and try to remain calm. Maybe she should even head back to engineering and get some work done. She hadn't been asked to go on this mission, a personal errand more than anything else, and she didn't expect to be after the revelation that she had suspected for some time Jane's true nature, geth involvement aside. Still though, she felt it her place to be at her _inszel's_ side, if not at all times, certainly when venturing planet-side into unknown territory. That there was _supposedly_ little chance of combat meant nothing to her; somehow John Shepard always found a way to get shot at wherever he went.

Maybe there was a middle ground. She didn't have to turn tail and run away for the sake of avoiding confrontation, but that didn't mean she had to seek conflict out either. Maybe she could just open the door and walk proudly in, only to see how the man was doing. On any given day that was still her prerogative as his soon-to-be bondmate. And besides, he _had_ instructed her to come find him after Jane was stable, hadn't he?

Set on her course of action, Tali sighed and palmed the door controls.

She took a few tentative steps inside, expecting the worst, hoping for the best. That's when she caught sight of the four dull human eyes fixed solely on her. Beneath one set of those eyes rested a scowl. But that was typical for Jack. John, on the other hand, was broadly smiling, as if he was happy to see her. That was a complete one-eighty from his mood earlier in the med-bay. While a smile on his face was as much to be expected from him as a scowl was from Jack, it was still extremely confusing, given the circumstances.

The pair of humans sat together on a couple of stools at the work bench just inside the bay, cleaning their recently fired weapons. John spoke first as she approached.

"Hey, Tali, glad you could make it." The Spectre sounded as cheerful as ever around her. Hearing his voice like that immediately lulled her into a genuine sense of security. John did _not_ use deceptive verbal tactics.

"I'm glad I could make it too…" she said, sounding both surprised and confused to her own ears, "Make it to what, exactly?"

"Oh, the mission briefing," he replied, setting his weapon and cleaning kit aside, "Jack and I wanted to know if you wanted to come along."

"_We did_?" Jack hissed under her breath, needing to bring her nose- and by extension her lips- within centimeters of his. The comment would have been too low for Tali to hear without her helmet, making the convict's proximity to her _inszel_ therefore innocent enough, but that didn't mean the engineer wasn't within her rights to ensure that the pair didn't remain that way for long.

Knowing that the change in the commander's mood was real, but not having any clue why, Tali confidently sauntered up to her human and took a seat on his lap, brushing and pushing against Jack's thighs as she sat. The quarian draped one arm over the back of his neck and the other across his chest, holding her hands together at the nape of his well-muscled neck. She used it to firmly anchor herself atop her favorite seat.

John's smile broadened even further, signaling that whatever had transpired between them was at an end. Either he had deemed her forgiven, or he had decided that she was right for not telling him of her strong suspicions. A third option was that he had done neither of those things but had decided that it didn't really matter what she had done. The truth was, it didn't matter to her either what was going through John's mind, only that at the moment, his anger, such as it was, had passed. Would they talk about it later? She hoped not. She certainly wasn't going to bring it up. Let sleeping kittens lie, as she was pretty sure the human expression went.

Jack moved ever so slightly away from the pair of lovers, not enough to signal defeat, or enough even for the couple to notice, save for a mild relief in pressure on Tali's knee. Jack no longer wished to be literally pushed aside it seemed. That brought a hidden smile to the quarian's face. _Know your place._

She began to feel unsure of John's mood yet again. So now was the time to become the insecure little girl that everyone, including herself sometimes, thought she was. The insecure girl that John had fallen in love with. The innocent little girl she _had_ been, until about two-and-a-half years ago when that person began to disappear. When she had burned a turian alive.

To be fair, he was very much dead by the time he had stopped burning. But when she hacked that incinerator on the Citadel right before going to see Doctor Michel, he was most definitely alive. _That_ experience had popped her suit seal when it came to taking lives. Now she would have three, four, once even _twenty three_ men and women in a single night. _Keelah_, she was tired after that particular experience. Numbers like that could match or surpass a Fleet Marine scout sniper's entire career.

…

That turian thug had been the start of the loss of her innocence and the birth of whatever she had become. She liked to think that John's death, hopefully his only death ever, had been what finished the process. But that wasn't true. That only made her more depressed at and less shy around him when he finally returned to her. No, she had changed before that. If she could pinpoint it, it was probably the time she had taken her first human life.

He was a Cerberus scientist. She never learned his name, although she could have found out if she really wanted to know. But she did not. He was about John's age when she killed him. With more hair than her human, and lighter in color, the man kept what grew on his face as opposed to removing it like John did every morning. The style was attractive enough, but she imagined it would have been itchy.

Tali had taken point in front of one of the marine squads while Ashley led another and John, the third. They were all clearing various rooms of a Cerberus facility, one which was doing something nasty, although what for the life of her she could not recall. Stacked for the clearing, she hacked one of the sealed doors. Nothing special about it, it was just the next one in the queue. Shotgun at the high-ready, she rushed out in front.

In an instant, a split second, not even enough time to think, she registered a human standing beside a lab table, surprise written on his face like it had been carved there with a knife. She yelled at him, voice amplified by tech, to get down, to put his nose on the floor, all the while gesturing with her support hand in the universal sign for '_Get the _fre'eg_ down!_' But he stood there, hesitating a moment too long. That's when she registered his hand moving ever so slightly towards what she could only assume was a weapon inside his lab-coat. Already charging as fast as her legs could carry her, bringing her shotgun to bear on his midsection meant ramming its muzzle into his stomach with all her momentum by default.

He doubled over and grunted.

She fired.

The shot peppered the wall behind them.

They would find out later that he was only going for a pair of beaten old spectacles, framed in a material designed to simulate delicately grained amber, now shattered by hypervelocity steel. Given the thickness of the shards of lens, he must have been almost blind without them. They were of the corrective type that were still very much in fashion with those who didn't want to waste money on surgery, or couldn't afford it, or liked the look of glasses. As Tali looked at his lifeless body after everything had calmed down, stroking hair the color of the color of one of Rannoch's beaches and the texture of silk, she suspected it was the very first possibility. The dead human seemed like he had been the practical sort, in life.

That was when her jading had become complete. When all the fear that was inside her had given up and died along with that man. Before, killing turians, even the cute ones, and salarians, asari, and krogans, just didn't quite seem real enough. She never thought of herself as racist, simply hating those who hated her, but the sentiment was there nonetheless. Humans though, now _they_ were people. They were _her _people, in a way. They were quarians who weren't plagued by the stigmata of suits that their Ancestors, the geth, and the exile had cursed them to wear. They were exactly what quarians were _supposed_ to be, and for the first time, she had killed one of them. One of her own.

An unarmed, harmless, male. Had he only been a child too, she would earned the trifecta of evil deeds and her mental agony would be complete.

John had said it had been a good kill. He pointed out that Tali had instructed the man on what he needed to do to stay alive, loudly and with gestures, and he didn't do it. Indeed, he instead chose go for something that could have been a weapon. He must have been too stupid to live, the Spectre had said. But it wasn't a weapon, and mistakes happen, especially when armed marines are charging into one's room. Stupidity should not be a crime worthy of the ultimate sanction. That was the first and only time she ever doubted her affection for John.

When he tried to rationalize what amounted to murder in her eyes.

She let his words convince her though, most of her, almost all of her, but some small part, deep inside, would not be comforted by his logic. When she thought about it, that's what rekindled her affection for him… That his words _had_ made her feel better, because they were probably designed to do exactly that and only that. He said what he said to make her feel better and not because he believed it himself. She could see it in his colorful human eyes. He too felt terrible over what had happened.

…

Tali drew on the lingering shell of a persona from before that time, the innocent, naïve girl that was long gone but still fit like a well-worn suit glove. It was not a lie, per se. She still felt doubt, fear, and insecurity, but now it was how she typically dealt with it that was different. Were she to abide by her current instincts, she would politely demand what she wanted and that would be that. At the moment though, she was still in the varren-house with John, or so she suspected, so she would adjust her demeanor accordingly.

"Oh, no, I couldn't go. I don't want to intrude, John," she said, easily appearing crestfallen as the thought of actually being left behind crossed her mind, "I know this a personal mission for Jack, and it's probably not going to be anything serious anyway. I'll just… I can… I could clean the engines with Lia again."

"Absolutely not, Tali," said John, "You're coming with us."

Jack growled, barely audibly. Tali pretended not to notice when the Spectre nudged the convict with an elbow.

"No, no… It's alright," she said with a head shake, "I know you're just saying that to make me feel better. I don't have to go."

John tightened his grip on her waist. "That's where you're wrong. We really could use your help. Lord knows what we'll find down there. Now it could be a pirate base, swarming with enemies for all we know. So this isn't your fiancé talking anymore, it's your boss. You're going. That's an order."

Tali hung her head. Inside her mask though, she was all smiles. "Of course, John. You are my Commander."

...

_I should have batted it away. Why did I roll?_

This was exactly what Tali had been afraid of. No matter where John Shepard or his sister went, someone would always try to kill them. Jane couldn't go to a bar without getting shot at and John could not blow up an abandoned building without running into a cadre of hired guns. The young engineer resolved at that moment to never leave his side, even if it was just to go have lunch with his friends.

At the moment though, that decision would do little to help things. At the _moment_, she had taken enough fire from krogan and vorcha mercenaries to trash a tank, which happened to be the exact amount needed to finish off her shields. And they were still shooting at her, some of the rounds painfully hitting home.

_I could roll back, then bat it away. No, you stupid girl, there's not enough time for that._

She always did this to herself. True, it had never been this bad before, but she could have been more careful. She always had to be the first one into the breach, always had to charge headlong into the fray, to human Hell with the danger. In that sense, she was very similar to Jane. The 'Shotgun Sisters' as some of the crew called them. And now she was about to end up just like her big sis. Maybe Xen could fill her head with geth too. Now _there_ was a thought.

The geth in Jane's head. No, not the geth _in_ Jane's head, the geth that _were_ Jane's head. Nothing organic could be found in that woman's skull, only a sophisticated computer running a hundred and forty-four thousand runtimes, more than could be found in most central hubs. Quarian tech had indeed progressed quite appreciably over the last three hundred years. The thought of so many geth in such a small package would boggle her mind briefly in the three to five seconds she had left to think, seconds that really did seem to stretch for an eternity when facing death.

_My biggest regret right now is that I rolled instead of swatted._

She had a few other regrets now that she prepared to join either the Ancestors or the angels. She was grateful to get John back, though upset that it had been for such short a time. Of course they could both live to be a hundred and it would still be far too short for her tastes. She never did get to see Rannoch either, let alone build their house there. At least she wouldn't die bitter and alone. She had John and her aunt and Jane, who was still her family, her sister from another world, geth or no geth.

_That _was one regret she hadn't even realized she had until this very last moment of life. She had been so upset about John being mad at her that she did not even think to tell him what kind of AI his sister actually was. He had not been there when Xen dropped the bombshell news and Tali had been so eager to not bring up what had happened earlier. Were she granted even a fraction of extra time she would tell him in a heartbeat, the better to never let something like that happen gain. Perhaps she would die slowly and she could use her final breath to let him know. _How would I do it? 'Your sister is a geth but I still love her!' Too dramatic, but it will have to do. Time is short. Speaking of which..._

As she continued to roll away, Tali glanced over at the grenade resting a couple of meters from her midsection, next to where she had fallen when the hypervelocity rounds started tearing through her thigh. Death should be instantaneous, which was good, she supposed, and it would be coming any millisecond now. She might have had time to recover some shielding had her generator not been shredded along with her leg.

Why did her immediate reaction to that frag grenade have to be to get the _fre'eg_ away from it like a scared little _bosh'tet_? She could have picked it up and hurled it away, or at least knocked it half a dozen meters from her position. Instead, here she was, rolling because she could no longer run, committed to an action that would kill her. By the time she realized what she had been doing was the wrong course of action, it was far too late.

Her head completed another three-sixty turn along with her body and that damn explosive came into view again. She didn't want her last view in this world to be of the instrument of her demise. She looked instead to her _inszel_, roughly twenty meters away and firing madly into what was left of those Bloodpack _bosh'tets_. He would single-handedly end that entire organization when he found out what happened to her, of that she had little doubt. It brought a final smile to her face.

Tali was set to have that be her last though, the final image that she would take into the afterlife. Powerful antibiotics and were already starting to dim her vision and make her light-headed. She would keep rolling away, but that was for appearance's sake. It would all amount to naught.

As if on cue, an angel descended from the sky, here to take her up to the human afterlife. That was good. The humans and their religion had been right all along. Her father, and certainly her mother, had been good people. She couldn't wait to see them again.

Right about the time Tali considered reaching up to embrace that unearthly glowing being, she realized that this particular angel was more tattooed and given to yelling profanities than either Ashley or Jane had led her to believe.

"Fuck me!" the bright blue creature screamed as it landed, or rather fell, two meters next to her and right on top of the grenade.

A muffled thud, and Tali blinked. Time that had been slowed to forever sped back up again. It had only been with a single second to spare that Jack dove onto the destructive device and saved her life. And for a second, for that single second, the young quarian had thought it was a human angel come to take her soul. Quite the turn-around of opinion from only a few hours ago. If Jack was still alive, Tali was going to owe her _big_.

Whether she could really lay claim to being the strongest biotic in the galaxy or not, diving on a live grenade was still extremely dangerous. Biotic barriers could fail or otherwise be breached. While Grunt noticed nothing beyond the krogan battlemaster he was bludgeoning with his shotgun, John paused in his suppressive fire to glance over at the women, his eyes growing wide with shock.

"Shit! You up?!" he asked both of them as the last of the gunfire finally subsided.

"I'm..." Tali started to say, but the truth was, she wasn't sure how she was, aside from having no feeling whatsoever in her left leg. A quick check of her HUD and then a glance down showed her that it wasn't as nearly bad as she had feared. Only one single tiny round had ruptured her suit. It had hit quite cleanly, a through and through wound, imparting almost none of its inertia in the process. All that trouble caused by a snipped nerve, nothing more, which certainly explained why it felt why her leg was no longer there. It would heal as good as new with proper treatment.

"I'm fine!" she finished, lifting herself up on an elbow to get a better view of Jack.

The convict was motionless. Not good. Few civilians realized that, with the exception of krogans, professional boxers, and characters in vids, people did not simply get 'knocked out'. They got _brain damaged_. In quarians, when the higher brain could no longer function, that meant turning feral either temporarily or permanently. In humans, that meant either coma or death.

Tali started to low-crawl her way over to Jack, hand over hand, limp leg trailing behind her. _If she doesn't start to move in the next few-_

"Ugh... Ow, fuck, I'm okay, I'm okay," mumbled Jack, rolling over to face Tali and looking up to find a very relieved quarian. "You know, when I was little, when other girls wanted to play princess, I always wanted to play the hero who rescues them. Never thought it'd be you..."

Tali collapsed on top of her, careful not to put too much weight on the smaller woman, pulling her up into a heartfelt embrace.

"Thank you," was all she could say to her savior.

...

The Bloodpack leader had been talking to someone named Aresh, the person that had hired them. Whoever that person was, he or she had to be on the other side of this door. There was nowhere in the facility left to hide. John set Tali down and prepared to palm the haptic interface to Jack's old room. The quarian let out a small sigh as she stood on her good leg, leaning against the doorframe. She had no doubt enjoyed being carried around bridal-style.

"We should go out on every mission like that," she quipped, "Every knight needs her faithful mount."

"Is that what I am to you?" John asked, humor creeping into his voice, "Just a horse?"

The engineer cocked her head to the side. "What's a horse?"

"Never mind, Tali," said John, "This person might have a few of the mercs hanging around as guards. I want you to stay here and guard our six."

"What? No! Maybe I can't take point, but you need me," she said.

"Yeah, I need you here, making sure no one comes up behind us while we're in there," he replied.

"John, we cleared behind us," she said, "There's no one left alive the way we came."

"Except that no one's guarding the entrance to this place. They could have called in reinforcements from some outpost," the Spectre said his command voice. That always seemed to work of her.

Except this time. "_I_ can't stay behind," she said, as if it were some obvious indisputable fact of life. There was even a hint of humor in her voice, as if John had just asked her to flap her arms really quickly and fly up to the ceiling. She began looking back and forth between Jack and Grunt.

"No, _they're_ not going to guard our six, _you_ are," he said, keeping his tone firm, "You're wounded, you're staying. End of discussion."

She looked to the ground, confused and hurt, as if it had finally started to dawn on her that he was serious. Her voice remained professional for the most part, but there was a some trembling to her metallic tenor, a sign that she was, in fact, pleading. "Don't leave me behind..."

"You would disobey an order from your commander?" he asked, gently tilting her chin up to look her in the eyes.

"No..." she mumbled, "I would disobey an order from my bondmate, though."

"Good," he said in a low voice, "But what am I to you right now?"

"My commander..." she sighed, "I will stay. But as soon as you give the all-clear, I'm hopping in there."

"Deal," said John.

"Good, let's get in there," Jack interjected, "I was starting to get sick from all that lovey-dovey crap."

"Yes," said Grunt, "This battle's over. The quicker we're out of here, the quicker we can fight the next one."

John palmed the interface and quickly stepped through. A short, empty corridor led to another door. On the other side was medium sized room. He hurried to right corner with his weapon scanning for targets. Jack did the same, heading to the left corner. Grunt, proving that he could be taught, followed behind John. A desk sat at one side, a stained and torn bed on the other. Near the back, a leaky faucet dripped into a rusted washbasin. Other than that, and the trash and broken bits of furniture lying about, there wasn't anything, or anyone, in the room. The Spectre walked forward slowly, kicking anything aside that looked large enough to harbor a person.

"Come out," John raised his voice, "We know you're here."

As he was about to push the desk aside with his foot, a man stepped out from underneath a pile of old cardboard boxes.

John brought his weapon to bear in an instant. Jack and Grunt did the same. The man appeared to be unarmed, but that meant little at the moment. "Who are you?" he asked.

"My name is Aresh-"

Weapon safeties clicked off.

"-And you're breaking into my home," the man said, stepping forward slowly, looking straight at Jack. He had the presence of mid to keep his hands raised. "I know you, Subject Zero. So many years have passed, and I thought I was the only survivor."

"My name is Jack!" she stepped forward to meet him, pressing her weapon against his forehead.

John disapproved of the action, but held his tongue. That was a rookie mistake, or something that people did for dramatic flare. Guns worked just as well from across the room, well outside a man's reach.

"How the hell do you know me?" she hissed.

"We all know your face, Zero," he answered slowly, smiling, "They inflicted horrors on us so their experiments wouldn't kill you. You were the question, and I'm still looking for the answer."

What do you mean 'still looking'?" John asked before Jack could interrupt, "Why did you come back?"

"I hired these mercs and came back about a year ago," he replied, "We're rebuilding it, piece by piece. I intend to continue the research that was done here."

Jack let loose a guttural scream, slamming the man to the ground with a biotic blast. He tried to deflect it with one of his own, but even the strongest of asari matriarchs would be hard pressed to defend against Subject Zero.

"You're doing _what?!_" she yelled, pistol whipping him in the head, almost tearing his left ear clean off his face. "You would do this again? You were there! You would put people through what we went through?! Would you do this to children, too? _Have_ you done this to children already? _Have you?!_"

Saying nothing, Aresh pointed to the desk that John had been about to check before he made his presence known.

John closed his eyes slowly and gritted his teeth, praying silently to whomever would listen that he was not about to find what his mind had taken him to. A hand fell on his shoulder and he opened an eye. Tali. He had not even noticed her hopping into the room and over to him. She nodded first to him, and then to the desk.

Supporting her weight as they approached the desk, John leaned down to check underneath. Tali did the same, bracing herself against the old piece of wooden furniture. He _really _wished she had not done that.

There laid the small, crumpled body of a boy no more than eight years old.

"_Why?_" breathed John.

Tali shook with rage, her fingers digging sharply into the Spectre's bicep. She pushed herself up off the desk, her free hand moving to her thigh holster. John saw, but he made no move to stop her. His attention fell to her other thigh, the one with the tiny hole in it sealed with black tape. That leg hung limply from her hip, useless with an injury that would have kept her bound to a wheelchair fifty years ago. John gritted his teeth and closed his eyes again.

"Everything we went through must have been worth something!" yelled Aresh, blood streaming from his ear, down his neck and over the collar of his shirt. "If they did this to us, there must have been a reason! If we don't see it through, then the pain, the death, all of it, was for nothing!"

"Shut! The! Fuck! Up!" Jack hit him across the bridge of his nose with the barrel of her pistol, rewarding them with a sickening crunch. She brought the weapon back to bear on his temple, then hesitated. "I... Shit, is this right? Will killing him fix my head?"

John had only one answer. One cold, monotone answer. "Do it."

Jack's pistol wavered. She hesitated again. "I know what he's done, but... I've never taken a life in cold blood. Self defense, yeah... But I'm not a murderer! I... Are you sure this is right?"

The Spectre bit his lip, about to respond, but someone cut him off.

"Your commander gave you an order, damnit!" screamed Tali, pointing her steady weapon at the kneeling man's head. "If you can't carry out his order, _I_ will."

Jack pulled the trigger, turning away at the last instant. The bullet still found its mark. The man slumping forward slowly, his body fighting a losing battle to remain upright as blood slowly dripped from his slackened mouth. There were plenty of ways to die quickly, but surprisingly, a gunshot through the head was not one of them. With most of the brain still intact, autonomic responses would continue and synapses would still fire, at least for the next five minutes of so. It would be grueling to watch, and Lord knew what else, besides hot steel, was going through the man's head.

John nodded to Grunt, who scattered the man's brain with his oversized shotgun. Aresh had been compliant, in the end. He owed him that final courtesy at least.

"That felt... Good," mumbled Jack.

...

"Jane is recovering quite well," said Miranda, taking the captain's chair at one end of the briefing room table. In Jane's absence, she would happily fill that role. Ironically, this put her above John aboard the ship. She hoped he didn't mind. "Her memory upload is complete. We're running the thirty-second integrity pass now. Two-hundred twenty-four to go."

"And then she'll be alright?" Tali asked from where she sat at John's left hand.

"The last thirty-two passes were perfect," said Miranda, smug satisfaction creeping into her voice. She couldn't help it. Besides, there was no shame in feeling pride in one's work. "If they are anything to go by, then yes, she'll be fine."

"Good," said John. "So... Why are we here?"

"The after action review, of course," The former operative replied.

"There's nothing to say, cheerleader," spat Jack, "We just had a little fun down there, is all."

"Control your Sergeant, Commander," said Miranda, glaring at the other woman, "This is procedure, nothing more. You used Alliance time and resources, personal mission or not. That warrants a report, if nothing else. If you want to type it up, that's fine, but this is easier."

"Alliance time and resources?" asked Tali, "Not Cerberus?"

"That's right, Lieutenant," replied Miranda, turning from Tali to Shepard, "I hold no illusions that the commander and the captain are executing this mission on behalf of Cerberus. You and your sister may officially be on convalescence leave to recover from your deaths, but you're still in the Alliance. That makes this an Alliance mission. The same probably holds true for the helmsman, our doctor, and our armorer as well. Heck, it would be nothing for them to steer this ship to the nearest Alliance starbase after everything is said and done. No point in denying it now."

"And Timmy is okay with all that? No fucking way," said Jack.

Miranda rolled her eyes. Of all the recruits that Harper had suggested, the convict had to be the worst. She was far too wild and passionate for anyone's own good, even hers. It only proved that The Illusive Man was as prone to mistakes as the rest of them.

"He suspects it, to be sure, but he won't act on anything he can't confirm. And I can't confirm it, so..." Miranda let the tail of her sentence trail off, finishing with an exasperated sigh. "Let's get this meeting back on track, shall we? Or would you rather spend two and a half hours typing up a report?"

"I'll do the report," said John, getting up to leave and helping a recovering Tali to his side. "Where's my XO? And the rest of the team?"

"The others, well, they're at their stations. No need to involve them if they weren't planet-side," replied Miranda, "Garrus is still with Jane. She's been transferred to her quarters."

"Then that's where we're heading," said John, "See you when we get to Tuchanka, Captain."

"Wha- Wait!" called Miranda, but they were already out the door. Jack and Grunt suddenly had better things to do, which was just as well, since Miranda had no desire to be confined in a room with either of them, let alone both of them together.

...

"John, I have something I want to tell you," said Tali as the briefing room door closed behind them. No, that wasn't right, that wasn't right at all. She quickly corrected herself. "No, I have something I _need_ to tell you."

"Yeah? What is it?" the Spectre asked, sounding very weary.

His reticence be damned, this could not wait. Deliberately, she disentangled her fingers from each other and halted him in the corridor with a hand on his shoulder. Urging herself to look him in the eye for the duration of this conversation, she waited for both Grunt and Jack to pass. They were bickering about something inconsequential and humorous. It seemed that to Jack's shock and revulsion, it had been Grunt who had insisted that Gardner start baking something called _oatmeal raisin cookies_. The engineer tried not to smile.

"It's about Jane," said Tali, "You see, Xen used a very specific kind of AI to rebuild her..."

**1) Review the heck out of this! Please give me suggestions of what you'd like to see. Fav and follow if you liked it.**

**2) Up next is Warrior Ethos: Tabula Rasa.**

**3) There is a new poll up on my profile! Let me know what you think.**

**4) The results from the old poll are in! The response was overwhelming that I NOT start a new story in a different universe. Sorry to those who wanted a warhammer 40k fic. I like Necrons anyway, and who wants to see undead robots stomp all over a bunch of sweaty Space Marines (which is totally what would happen)?**


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